THE 



HEAVENLY VISION 

AND 

OTHER SERMONS 



7 

BOOTH, D.D. 



HENRY M, 
Pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Englewood^ N. J. 



NEW YORK 
ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH & COMPANY 

9OO BROADWAY, COR. 20th ST. 



■EMU nt 



Copyright, 1885, by 
Anson D. F. Randolph & Company. 



EDWARD O. JENKINS 1 SONS, 
Printers and Stereotypers, 
20 North William Street, New York. 



LC Control Number 



tmp96 029059 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

I. — The Heavenly Vision, 5 

II. — The Religious Opportunities of Suburban 

Life, 24 

III. — The Divine Estimate of Man, ... 44 

IV. — The Moral Ends of Business, ... 63 

V. — Conceptions of God, as Expressed by the 

Sanctuary, 82 

VI. — The Efficiency of Refinement, . . . 103 

VII. — The Question of Mordecai, . . . .126 

VIII.— " The Sea is His," 145 

IX. — The Past in the Present, .... 163 

X. — Distress Without Despair, . . . .183 

XI. — Jesus of Nazareth — His Place in History, 203 

XII. — The Gracious Words— What were they ? . 223 

XIII— The Work of Jesus Christ— What did He 

do ? 243 

XIV. — The Person of Jesus Christ, .... 264 

XV. — The Christian Life, , 285 

XVI. — Leaven— The Influence of Jesus Christ, . 305 

XVII.—" Out of Self, into Christ, up to Glory," . 327 

(3) 



I. 



THE HEAVENLY VISION. 

"Whereupon, King Agrippa, I was not dis- 
obedient unto the heavenly vision." — ACTS 
xx vi. 19. 

The Apostle had reference to the memorable cri- 
sis, which was his introduction to the Christian life. 
He had lived long enough to appreciate the signifi- 
cance of that crisis, both as to purpose and influence. 
In it, he had discovered the ideal, which he had been 
trying to realize ever since ; and in it, also, he had 
found a sacred magnetism, which had been to him a 
perpetual solicitation. He had been like Moses, to 
whom God had revealed the plan of the Tabernacle. 
From Mount Sinai to the plain of the Hebrew en- 
campment, the venerable leader had carried the plan, 
which skilful workmen had afterward expressed. The 
impression of the crisis had never ceased to control 
Paul. He had crossed the continents, and had en- 
countered every variety of thought ; he had endured 
hardships, and had passed through many eventful ex- 
periences ; he had advanced from youth to maturity 
and thence to old age ; and yet he had never lost 

(5) 



6 



THE HE A VENL Y VISION. 



sight of the ideal, whose welcome invitation had 
called him " to press toward the mark for the prize 
of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." 

In the presence of King Agrippa and a splendid 
retinue, the Apostle had appeared to explain his 
conduct. He was a prisoner of the Romans. Jewish 
enmity charged him with sedition and conspiracy. 
He had made an appeal unto Caesar, and was await- 
ing the time of his departure for the Imperial City. 
The Procurator, Porcius Festus, was interested in his 
case, and was glad of the opportunity of bringing him 
before his royal guests. The occasion was one of un- 
usual magnificence. Paul was facing a brilliant court, 
as he stood to relate the circumstances of his life. 
This was not a defence. His appeal had transferred 
the trial to Rome. He was simply responding to the 
orders of the Procurator, who had summoned him 
from his prison to entertain Agrippa and Bernice. 

With intense enthusiasm, the Apostle described 
his conversion, dwelling minutely upon the vision 
which he had, as he was on his journey to Damas- 
cus. That vision was to him a convincing argument. 
So evident, so satisfactory was it, that he promptly 
yielded his life to its control. From that hour, he 
had been a Christian. His subsequent career had 
confirmed the faith, which he then exercised, as he 
had practically made himself over into a new man 
under the influence of the heavenly vision. Thus as 



THE HE A VENL Y VISION. 7 

he stood in the presence of royalty, his simple man- 
hood — so heroic, so pure, so Christlike — was more 
brilliant than all the glitter of the pompous, licentious 
court. Never, for one moment, had he been disobe- 
dient unto the heavenly vision. The recompense had 
been secured, and Paul's life and work were its grand 
realities. 

This same heavenly vision presents to us its glori- 
ous possibilities of purpose and influence. We may 
not, it is true, see a bright light and hear a divine 
voice upon the Damascus Road. There are many 
travellers who make the journey from Jerusalem to 
Damascus without any consciousness of visions ; and 
yet there are many pilgrims who never visit the 
Holy Land, whose march is directed and cheered as 
they become conscious of this same heavenly vision. 
They share with Paul the ecstasy, and unite with him 
in acknowledging their dependence upon the strength. 
They " endure as seeing Him who is invisible." The 
heavenly vision commands their obedience at every 
step of this heavenward progress — beginning, middle, 
and end. It is the sun of their spiritual firmament, 
whose genial rays address the feeble infancy of ex- 
perience with promise, the strong maturity of reali- 
zation with fulfilment, and the timidity of the earthly 
termination of life with hope. Always present, and 
yet always ahead, the heavenly vision is constantly 
announcing new revelations, and as constantly afford- 



8 



THE HE A VENL Y VISION. 



ing new delights. Oh ! that we might be led, by the 
Holy Spirit, to a happy appreciation of its place and 
opportunity ! Oh ! that we might exhibit the fidel- 
ity of Paul, which appeared in his noble Christian 
life ! Oh ! that we might be permitted to make his 
good confession : " I was not disobedient unto the 
heavenly vision ! " But just what is this heavenly 
vision ? How is it possible that we, in our day and 
country, should accept this as our purpose and influ- 
ence? 

1st. The heavenly vision is the revelation of Christ. 
To Paul, this vision was a clear, definite manifestation 
of the Redeemer, which qualified him for his Apostle- 
ship. "Am I not an Apostle?" he asked as he ad- 
dressed the Corinthians. "Am I not free? Have I 
not seen Jesus Christ, our Lord?" Then he declared 
positively, that "last of all He was seen of me also, 
as of one born out of due time." Thus he placed 
himself on an equality with the other Apostles, who 
had known Christ after the flesh. It would appear — 
and yet we must not be too confident — that an ob- 
jective revelation was granted, that he saw with his 
eyes the Lord Jesus, and heard with his ears the 
voice of the Son of man. However that may be, it 
certainly pleased God to reveal His Son in him in 
sugh manner that he was convinced of the divine 
authority of Jesus of Nazareth. This was the es- 
sential thing. We need not press^ the narrative un- 



THE HE A VENL Y VISION. g 

duly. It is not possible that we should understand 
the heavenly vision as to its method. " The wind 
bloweth where it listeth." The methods of spiritual 
phenomena are always obscure, even when their re- 
sults are evident. He, who is caught up into Para- 
dise, will certainly hear unspeakable words. We must 
not be surprised. The revelation of Christ is for life, 
not for philosophical speculation, for service rather 
than for forms of words. " If," say Farrar,* " we 
would in truth understand such spiritual experiences, 
the records of them must be read by a light that never 
was on land or sea. Paul arose another man ; he had 
fallen in death, he arose in life ; he had fallen in the 
midst of things temporal, he arose in awful conscious- 
ness of the things eternal ; he had fallen a proud, in- 
tolerant, persecuting Jew, he arose a humble, broken- 
hearted, penitent Christian. In that moment, a new 
element had been added to his being. Henceforth — 
to use his own deep and dominant expression — he 
was in Christ — God had found him ; Jesus had spoken 
to him, and in one flash changed him from a raging 
Pharisee into a true disciple — from the murderer of 
the Saints into the Apostle of the Gentiles." 

The revelation of Christ still announces the divine 
realities of the Gospel. Individuals are now permit- 
ted to appreciate and to enjoy these eternal facts. 



* " Life and Work of St. Paul." Vol. I., 198. 

, I* 



10 



THE HE A VENL Y VISION. 



They make their appeal, and that appeal is within 
the range of a sanctified, personal consciousness. I 
may know, and I may know convincingly, that Jesus 
Christ is my Saviour, " whom having not seen I love ; 
in whom, though now I see Him not, yet believing, I 
rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." If 
this is not true, then Christian consciousness is a 
delusion, and Christian history is the record of the 
weakest credulity. For Christian consciousness is 
based upon a faith in the presence of our blessed 
Lord, and Christian history describes the fidelities of 
many holy spirits whose lives have been hid with 
Christ in God. You may ask the disciples of Jesus 
as to their holy aspirations, and they will answer that 
the Lord Jesus Christ has appeared to them. " Christ 
stood before me," was the confession of a devout 
woman, " and I saw Him with the eyes of the soul 
more distinctly than I could have seen Him with the 
eyes of the body." In such a confession, we are able 
to advance a little in our knowledge of this revelation. 
The eyes of the soul are contrasted with the eyes of 
the body. When we speak of seeing a person, we 
usually have reference to the sight which is afforded 
by the eyes of the body, as when we say that we see 
a friend upon the streets or at his own door. But 
that is not the only sight. The eyes of the soul can 
also see, as when we are asked to approve a descrip- 
tion of virtue or grace. There are mental photo- 



THE HE A VENL Y VISION. 



II 



graphs ; there are word pictures. In a proper sense, 
you and I see the German Emperor or the British 
Queen, because we have been made acquainted with 
their intellectual and moral characteristics. Perhaps 
we see them more clearly and intelligently than he 
does who catches a glimpse of their countenances 
and knows nothing of their spirituality. 

We have been taught that Christ is the divine in- 
carnation of certain most excellent qualities, that 
truth and goodness are present in Him, that forgive- 
ness and mercy and love and hope are His announce- 
ments, that in His face the glory of God appears. 
This is the teaching of the Bible, and this teaching 
reaches us in the person of Christ. Can we then see 
Christ without seeing the lineaments of His counte- 
nance and His human form ? If we may not bring back 
in bodily presence the Jesus who lived for three-and- 
thirty years in Galilee, may not Christ still be in us 
the hope of glory? Most certainly! The reality has 
frequently commended itself. As a revelation, Christ 
has appeared to weary, anxious souls with hope and 
blessing, opening to faith the splendid possibilities of 
life with God, and shaping life here upon the earth in 
every least particular. Men have seen Christ, as the 
artist sees his conception of statue or cathedral : as 
the poet sees the thought which he must elaborate 
in Iliad or Lost Paradise ; as the musician sees the 
symphony, whose matchless harmonies he reduces to 



12 



THE HE A VENL Y VISION. 



the order of an orchestra. Christ is there, and we 
are here. The heavenly vision is evident. There is 
no doubt that God is speaking. The divine call 
awakens a response. Every energy is aroused. The 
pulse-beats are quick and eager, as the endeavor to 
apprehend that for which also we are apprehended of 
Christ Jesus becomes influential. Thus Pres. Ed- 
wards — a man of unusual mental grasp — describes his 
own happy experience when he says : " I had a view, 
that for me was extraordinary, of the glory of the 
Son of God as Mediator between God and man, and 
His wonderful, great, full, pure, and sweet grace and 
love, and meek and gentle condescension. The per- 
son of Christ appeared ineffably excellent with an ex- 
cellency great enough to swallow up all thought and 
conception." Was not that a heavenly vision ? Did 
he not see Christ as truly as Paul did ? Can we fail 
to discover the influence of the heavenly vision upon 
the subsequent life of that great man ? When the 
eyes of David Livingstone — one of Africa's heroes — • 
were opened to behold the Saviour, the strong im- 
pulse of a holy love filled his soul with most real and 
earnest and effective ambitions. He did not know it 
then, but he knew it afterward, that for him the 
heavenly vision meant Africa's redemption, with the 
toilsome life, which he ended on his knees in the rude 
hut in Ilala. It was so too with Gordon, England's 
lonely' sentinel at Khartoum. The heavenly vision 



THE HE A VENL Y VISION. I3 

outlined his duties to him, and then held him firmly, 
with its divine constraint, while all the world won- 
dered at the spectacle of courage and consecration. 

" Warrior of God, man's friend, not here below, 
But somewhere dead in the far waste Soudan, 
Thou livest in all hearts ; for all men know 

This earth hath borne no simpler, nobler man." 

It is to this heavenly vision, this revelation of Christ, 
that I would direct your thoughts. You may be- 
lieve in its reality. It is for you, as it was for Paul. 
What then will life mean, if once you appreciate this 
inspiration, if always you are controlled by your esti- 
mate of Christ? 

2d. The revelation of Christ presents the ideal 
which is a constant solicitation to holy endeavor. 
This ideal is practical and at the same time pro- 
gressive ; it is within my reach and also ahead of me. 
Many of our ideals are exhausted. We quickly come 
up to them, and their advantages are utilized, and 
they are left behind. I suppose that every one has 
found this to be true. In childhood we had our 
ideals, and we look back at them now with amuse- 
ment, or pity, or both. Then other ideals became 
influential, but they had their day too, and disap- 
peared. Strength or wealth or beauty or pleasure 
or fame have all solicited us, and over each, per- 
chance, we have raised the bitter lamentation of the 
preacher, " Vanity of vanities." We will not learn 



I 4 THE HEA VENL V VISION. 

from the experience of others. Every one must be- 
come an experimental philosopher for himself. The 
follies and the mistakes of the generations are re- 
peated year by year. We are no wiser than our 
fathers were. Our ideals are so many of them like 
the pot of money which is said to lie at the point of 
the rainbow. The earthly vision lures us on to dis- 
appointment and despair. We are seldom successful 
with our cherished plans, and when we are, we are 
not happy. The question, " Is life worth living?" is 
soberly discussed ; and a pessimistic philosophy wins 
adherents in the circles of fashion and pleasure. 

This should not be. Life should be sweet and 
interesting, progressive and spiritual. Where the 
heavenly vision is distinctly recognized, its powerful 
influence will be felt in calls to service, in bright an- 
ticipations of a future state, and in most delightful 
communings with God. The revelation of Christ 
promotes Christian optimism which is intelligently 
hopeful. Therefore with this conviction we can 
hardly fail to prize the heavenly vision. It is our 
ideal, whose influence we cordially respect. 

The ideal meets us constantly, and is always prac- 
tical. The revelation of Christ is for every age and 
condition, and it is within the reach of all. Inas- 
much as it presents a complete salvation, its appeal 
is addressed to sinners everywhere. Sin is an inter- 
est which is common to the race. " All have sinned 



THE HE A VENL Y VISION. x 5 

and come short of the glory of God." There is a 
taint in human nature which grace must remove. 
No rank, no station, no ancestral advantages can 
secure an exemption from this condition. By the 
divine law of heredity we appear in the world with 
a sinful tendency. It is as certain that a child will 
sin, as it is that a child will speak. Yes ! and more 
so. This sinful tendency antagonizes God and the 
authority of God. Its selfishness is conspicuous. 
Without restraint, it develops into immorality, and 
crime, and death. " Sin, when it is finished, bringeth 
forth death." In and of itself it is hopeless. Facing 
the wrong way, it advances, with more or less rapid- 
ity, to despair and remorse. There is but one hope, 
and that is given in the revelation of Christ. 

This revelation — the heavenly vision — meets sin in 
all its stages with pardon, renewal, and perfect holi- 
ness. A child may respond to this ideal, and many 
children have. Their determination to accept Christ 
has been the earnest of a happy life. Under His 
guidance they have formed strong and beautiful 
Christian characters. The traits which He exem- 
plified have been secured by them in the progress of 
the years. They have " grown up into Him in all 
things which is the head, even Christ." He has al- 
ways been kept in view. Every interest has been 
referred to Him. The plan of life has been defi- 
nitely conceived, and the important work of life- 



i6 



THE HE A VENL Y VISION. 



building has gone steadily forward. What a splendid 
career has thus opened before childhood ! Christ. 
The child is to be like Christ. He may occupy this 
or that sphere of life ; he may engage in this or that 
pursuit ; he may be rich or poor ; he may be mer- 
chant, farmer, lawyer, scholar, soldier; but he must 
be increasingly like Christ. And what does this mean, 
except that he must be transferring to himself and 
appropriating " whatsoever things are true, whatso- 
ever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, 
whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are 
lovely, whatsoever things are of good report "? Christ 
is a generic, personal expression, which covers every 
desirable characteristic. The Christian should ex- 
hibit the finest types of manhood or womanhood. 
A base Christian, a mean Christian, an impure Chris- 
tian ! What shall we say of such ? They travesty 
the Gospel, and bring reproach upon the Master, 
whose name they bear. Christ is nobility and large- 
heartedness and purity. He rebukes our miserable 
selfishness, and calls us ever to 

" Nobler modes of life, 
With sweeter manners, purer laws." 

How gladly then do we encourage childhood to 
choose Christ as the only perfect ideal ! How de- 
lightful it is to see youth advancing toward the per- 
fection which Christ reveals ! We want nothing less ; 



THE HE A VENL Y VISION, 1 7 

we can be satisfied with nothing less. Let the end 
of their conversation be " Jesus Christ, the same yes- 
terday, and to-day, and forever." 

Then what a grand encouragement the heavenly 
vision is to the wasted, dissolute life ! Alas, that we 
must say so, but the Parable of the Prodigal Son is 
as fresh and pertinent as an item in the daily paper. 
The far country is populous, and the journey thereto 
is as direct as the route of a trunk-line. The law of 
degeneracy is painfully evident. With or without 
their portion of the estate, so many of the sons of 
God leave the Father's house to waste their sub- 
stance with riotous living. Often we meet them in 
despair, poor, ragged, forsaken, with nothing to eat 
but the wretched husks, which are fit only to feed 
swine. Now, what can we say? What vision can we 
offer them ? Will they be received if they return in 
their rags, after these years of wickedness? Can 
they find their way back to the Fathers house ? Is 
their condition hopeless? No! We may speak of 
the heavenly vision ; we may encourage them to look 
for it ; we may assure them that a welcome will be 
theirs ; we may even convince them that they may 
be washed, that they may be sanctified, that they 
may be justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and 
by the Spirit of our God. Surely that is good news ! 
Think of what it would have been to the Prodigal 
Son in his misery and loneliness among the swine, if 



1 3 



THE HEAVENLY VISION. 



one of noble aspect, and generous resources, and 
tender sympathies had appeared to say : " My brother, 
this is not the life for you. You are wanted in the 
old home. There a welcome is prepared for you. I 
will be your companion. In time, you may become 
as noble and generous and happy as I am." Think 
of the influence of such an assurance ! Yet precisely 
that — yea, and much more — meets every wayward, 
profligate life, when Christ is present. " The wages 
of sin is death ; but the gift of God is eternal life, 
through Jesus Christ our Lord." 

Another phase of the subject appears when ser- 
vice is considered. The heavenly vision is a call to 
service. John, the aged Apostle, appreciated the 
Gospel when he wrote : " Whoso hath this world's 
good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth 
up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth 
the love of God in him ? " The Gospel is love, and 
the love of the weak, of the stranger, of the degraded, 
of the enemy. Around this estimate of the Gospel, 
the bright Christmas legends, known and read of all 
men, have grouped themselves with the evident de- 
sign of enforcing the truth that Christ is served in the 
service of humanity, " Inasmuch as ye have done it un- 
to one of the least of these, my brethren, ye have done 
it unto me." Among these legends, I recently found 
one which is associated with the ancient Saxon cus- 
tom of burning the yule-log " to keep the divine in- 



THE HEAVENLY VISION. I 9 

fant from the cold/' A selfish man, who had plenty 
of money, but no sympathy, was keeping his Christmas 
all alone, and out of deference to the day, he kept a 
little log burning with a very feeble flame. As he 
shivered in the chilly atmosphere of his desolate 
room, he fell asleep and dreamed. In his dream he 
heard a voice which drew his attention to a beautiful 
child who stood near to him, and said, " Jesus is cold." 
With an impatient movement, the selfish man stirred 
the fire a little, and said : " Why don't you go to the 
farm-house down the lane? You'll be warm enough 
there." "Yes!" replied the child, "but you make 
me cold. You are so cold." " Then what can I do 
for you ? " " You can give me a gold coin." With 
a great deal of reluctance the money-chest was opened, 
and a gold coin was given to the child. He took it. 
Instantly the dingy room became bright and cheerful 
as the child hung up some laurel and holly, saying, 
" These are for life" and placed two candles on the 
shelf, saying, " These are for light" and stirred the 
fire, saying, " That is for love" Then the door was 
thrown open, and a poor widow, and a sick man, and 
orphan children were brought in and seated at a beau- 
tiful repast, while the child kept saying, " Jesus is 
warm now," and the selfish man found that he was 
enjoying the scene, so that he presently confessed, 
" I think that I am warmer too." But the child sud- 
denly disappeared, and in his place there was a divine 



20 



THE HE A VENL Y VISION, 



Presence, and solemnly the words were pronounced : 
" Although I am in Heaven, I am everywhere ; for 
everywhere is Heaven if I am there. I can not suffer- 
as I once suffered, but whenever my children are cold, 
or hungry, or persecuted, or neglected, I suffer with 
them : and whenever they are warm, and fed, and shel- 
tered, and loved, I rejoice with them. So that Jesus 
is often cold, and Jesus is often warm/' 

Looking into the faces of your fellow-men, can you 
see the possibility of the Christ-likeness there ? Look- 
ing beyond the seas to distant continents, and to 
races hardly known, can you believe that Christ calls 
you to bring them out of heathenism into the glori- 
ous liberty of the sons of God ? Looking at the 
grave problems of social life, can you realize the re- 
sponsibility which Christ puts upon you in this be- 
half? Looking at yourself with your equipment of 
talent and influence, can you hear any message from 
the skies which commands you to serve? If so, then 
do you behold the heavenly vision. You are not de- 
pendent upon the fancy or caprice of men. You are 
not recompensed by the returns of effort. A grand 
ideal has presented itself. You are conscious of a 
divine inspiration. Your truest recompense is this 
glorious fact, that you, a poor mortal, that you, a crea- 
ture of yesterday, are associated with the infinite God 
in the accomplishment of the plans for whose con- 
summation He gave His own dear Son. God grant us 



THE HE A VENL Y VISION. 



21 



all a clear perception of the vision so heavenly ! May 
we make it both purpose and influence, and thus 
serve our generation until we fall on sleep, and are 
gathered to our fathers ! 

3d. A constant solicitation to holy endeavor met a 
response in Paul, whose significance was expressed by 
his splendid life. " He was not disobedient unto the 
- heavenly vision." In other words, and more positively, 
he was faithful. The heavenly vision captivated him. 
He surrendered absolutely to its control. Friends 
were forsaken when friendship meant the denial of 
Christ. Pharisaism with all its worldly preferment 
was despised in comparison with the excellency of the 
knowledge of Christ Jesus. Ease was exchanged for 
hardship. Perils were freely encountered. Prisons 
and dungeons became familiar. And for what ? In 
order that Paul might finish his course with joy, and 
the ministry which he had received of the Lord Jesus. 
Was he wise ? Was his life a success ? Did the 
heavenly vision lure him on to disappointment? 
Consult his biographer and answer ; read his letters 
and know ; consider his influence, and appreciate its 
permanent, pervasive strength, as the bounds of Chris- 
tendom are enlarged. Paul wrote his life upon the 
centuries, and above his name there stands but one, 
and that is the name which is above every name — the 
name of Jesus. 

Shall we share with him the service, the joy, and 



22 



THE HE A VENL Y VISION. 



the crown, if we are not disobedient unto the heavenly 
vision ? Most assuredly, because God is no respecter 
of persons. The promise is for us, as it was for Him. 
We may see Christ. Are we watching for Him ? 
Would we know Him if He should appear? May we 
hope to keep to Him faithfully ? The Holy Spirit 
waits upon our response to questions such as these. 
He can open the sightless eyes, and He can train the 
soul to see the unseen things. He can give steadfast- 
ness of purpose and fixedness of endeavor. He can 
enlarge experience and quicken faith. He can do what 
was done for Moses, when from the top of Pisgah, the 
Land of Promise was made known. He can antici- 
pate the hour of death, which to the Lawgiver was 
the hour of vision; and He can bring this revelation 
of Christ to the soul's perception, when the feet are 
upon the threshold, and the years have just begun to 
be numbered. Welcome, then, the gracious influence 
of the Holy Spirit. Yield cheerfully to its control. 
Make Christ your choice. Regard the heavenly 
vision. Greet its sublime inspiration. March under 
its glorious leadership. Other ideals — minor and 
subordinate — will be reached and left behind you in 
the advance. This never. Like the star that led the 
wise men of the East, it conducts always to Christ. 
When you have reached His perfection, when your 
strength is His, when your beauty is His, when your 
resemblance is complete, then may you speak of 



THE HEA VENL Y VISION. 23 

other and grander ideals. But then, in that happy- 
consummation, you will be with the multitude which 
no man can number, whose hearty sympathy is their 
adoration of the Redeemer, Jesus Christ. There the 
ideal will never more be questioned, for purpose and 
influence will be one in Christ. 



II. 



THE RELIGIOUS OPPORTUNITIES OF 
SUBURBAN LIFE. 

" And he left them, and went out of the city into 
Bethany ; and he lodged there" — Matthew 
xxi. 17. 

BETHANY was a suburb of Jerusalem. Many lawyers 
and merchants of the city resided there. The town 
was pleasantly situate upon the eastern slope of the 
Mount of Olives. It was reached by three roads — » 
one of which was the highway to Jericho and the 
country beyond the Jordan. A grove of palm-trees 
afforded a delightful shade in the Summer ; while the 
overhanging cliffs were a secure protection against 
the rough winds of the Winter. In the distance, the 
Peraean hills were visible, and the foreground of the 
landscape was made attractive and beautiful by the 
orchards and gardens, whose fertility was contrasted 
with the barrenness of the Desert, which was con- 
stantly invading the territory of " the house of 
dates." 

The population of Jerusalem could not be accom- 
modated within the walls of the city. Numerous 
(24) 



SUB URBAN LIFE. 2 $ 

public buildings occupied many desirable locations, 
while the ordinary business — religious, political, mil- 
itary, and commercial — pressed the home-life of the 
more wealthy citizens out through the gates to enjoy 
the villas which had been built upon the surrounding 
hills. Roman law gave safety to the unwalled towns 
of Judea. The Jews quickly appreciated the favor- 
able opportunities which were thus presented to 
them. They could secure the advantages of their 
sacred city without encountering the disadvantages 
of a city life. The Temple was accessible. The 
courts of law were within easy reach. The libraries 
were open to them. The shops and the exchanges 
were not far away. The suburbs became attractive. 
Lightfoot — a careful scholar — warrants the statement 
that " if there were no gardens in Jerusalem, there 
was a girdle of them, reaching from its very walls 
and down the valleys, and up the opposite hillsides. 
On the hills around rose the mansions of many citi- 
zens, and at the bend, where the valleys of Kidron 
and Hinnom met beside the Pool of Siloam, the eye 
regaled itself with the wide and rich verdure of the 
royal gardens." 

Bethany was the suburban home of the friends of 
Jesus, Lazarus, Martha, and Mary. They were evi- 
dently persons of consideration, for many of the Jews 
came from Jerusalem upon visits of sympathy after 

the death of Lazarus, and the spikenard with which 
2 



26 



SUBURBAN LIFE. 



Mary anointed the feet of Jesus was very costly. In 
this home, the duties of religion were not neglected. 
The divine authority of the Old Testament Scriptures 
was recognized, and the precious truths of that sub- 
lime revelation determined the life of the family. 
Jesus was cordially welcomed to their hospitality, 
and an especial interest was manifested in His conver- 
sation. What incident is more suggestive than that 
given by Luke, when he introduces the practical 
Martha, busily engaged in providing for the enter- 
tainment of their guest, and the contemplative Mary, 
completely absorbed in listening to His speech ! 

Six days before the Passover, He arrived at the 
dwelling of His friends, and there He remained, com- 
ing back every evening from Jerusalem, until the 
morning of the memorable Thursday which witnessed 
His departure for the Paschal Supper and the suffer- 
ings of Calvary. On that morning He sent two of 
His disciples into the city to make all necessary prep- 
arations, and at a later hour of the day He left Beth- 
any to meet " the twelve " in the designated " upper 
room." 

The retirement of Bethany was evidently grateful 
to Jesus. When He crossed the brow of the Mount 
of Olives, or passed around its southern shoulder, He 
left the angry controversies of Scribes and Pharisees, 
and found the peaceful companionship of sympathiz- 
ing friends. Thus He gave a tacit commendation to 



SUB URBAN LIFE. 2 7 

the life which we, my friends, have learned to prize, 
and suggested an inquiry into the proper influence 
of a suburban residence upon Christian character. 
This theme — certainly quite practical — may prop- 
erly engage our attention at the present time. We 
are living near to a great city, and yet we are living 
in the country. Are there advantages in a suburban 
life which should be appreciated and improved ? 
With a clear recognition of some of these advan- 
tages, I may hope, by a few suggestions, to stimu- 
late your thoughts. Christian character is affected 
by its environment. How may we secure the best 
results from our surroundings ? 

1st. The works of God are constantly announcing 
the divine presence to suburban life. It is a rare 
privilege to live in the midst of God's works. Per- 
haps they become common things to those who are 
very familiar with them. Yet they are not the less 
instructive on that account. Some of the most prec- 
ious things become commonplace when they are 
abundantly possessed. Friendship is not always 
valued at its proper estimate ; health is never appre- 
ciated until sickness comes ; the daily benefits of 
life, fresh air, food, water, sleep, appear very desira- 
ble when once we are deprived of them. It is so 
with the works of God. There are many persons 
who do not seem to consider them in their intelli- 
gence and beauty. They have eyes, but they see 



28 



SUBURBAN LIFE. 



not. Sensibility is dormant. No response is given 
to the appeals of nature. The landscape suggests 
the market price of broad acres or of garnered grain, 
but offers no hint, to minds like these, of the wisdom 
and power which raised the mountains and traced a 
path for the watercourses, which clothed the meadows 
with verdure and called the spreading oak from the 
recesses of an acorn. There is a sad loss here, which 
remands to poverty not a few of the men who sup- 
pose that they have become very rich. With all 
their wealth of territory or estate they do not 
have as much profitable enjoyment as the reverent 
man has who " looks up from nature to nature's 
God." 

" To him who in the love of Nature holds 
Comm anion with her visible forms, she speaks 
A various language ; for his gayer hours 
She has a voice of gladness, and a smile 
And eloquence of beauty, and she glides 
Into his darker musings with a mild 
And healing sympathy that steals away 
Their sharpness ere he is aware." 

The Hebrew conception of nature, as we meet it 
in the Psalms, was remarkably influential. God and 
the works of God were intimately associated. They 
never supposed that these works could have any ex- 
istence whatever without the presence of God. God 
was very near to their consciousness. They were not 
skilled in the methods of science ; and yet the meth- 



5 UB URBAN LIFE. 29 

ods of science, which bring to light so many of tfie 
hidden things of nature, need not keep us from the 
endeavor to sympathize with their spirit. On the 
contrary, every new announcement of science is fitted 
to add to our appreciation of the wisdom and power 
which are capable of such wonderful expressions. 
The universe is broader, the reign of law is far more 
extensive, the authority of God is more sublime than 
the Hebrews could have imagined. Yet with their 
spirit we may keep pace with the advance of dis- 
covery. A constant recognition may be given to 
God. In the heavens we may behold His glory, and 
in the firmament we may discover His handiwork. 
Each season may bring us new intelligence of His 
fidelity to the ancient promise that seed-time and 
harvest shall not fail, and each morning may come 
with a fresh benediction from Him, who is our ex- 
ceeding joy; the plants and the flowers may have 
their appropriate lessons, and the animals and the 
birds may suggest many profitable reflections. The 
book is always open. There are no restrictions with 
reference to study. God invites. The opportunity 
is ours. May we not always enjoy the reward ? "I 
would not," says one who has used his suburban life 
to the best advantage, " I would not for all the com- 
fort which I might get from the books of the Alex- 
andrian Library, or from the Lenox Library, give up 
the comfort which I get out of nature. Nature, 



3 o SUB URBAN LIFE. 

now that I have had the revelation of God which in- 
terprets it to me, I would not give up for anything. 
I had almost said that I would rather lose the Bible 
than to lose my world. There is no sunlight that 
does not say something to me of the Sun of Right- 
eousness. There is no created thing that does not 

say something to me of God, who framed it 

There is nothing that grows, no weed, no grass, no 
flower, no fruit, that is not in some way related to 
God in my thoughts ; and I am never so near to Him 
as when I am in the presence of His works, as when 
night or day I am in that solemn cathedral, the world 
of nature, and behold its everchanging beauty." 

Here are certainly privileges which no one of us 
should neglect. We can not dispense with the in- 
terior, the more spiritual processes of grace — of that, 
I am well aware. No one can prosper as a Christian, 
if he fails to use his Bible and to wait upon the or- 
dinances of the house of God. Yet, on the other 
hand, we shall lose a freshness and vividness of ex- 
perience which will add greatly to the interest of 
religion, if we do not consider the works of God. 

2d. In its contact with the natural world, suburban 
life finds many suggestive comments jn the truths of 
the Gospel. Our Lord delivered most of His dis- 
courses in the open air. From the objects around 
Him and from the phenomena of nature, He drew 
His illustrations. These illustrations cover truths, 



S UB URBAN LIFE. 3 1 

which announce themselves when the illustrations 
are interpreted. Consequently, a Bible student must 
be a student of nature. One of the best commen- 
taries is Dr. Thomson's " The Land and the Book," 
a volume that places side by side the descriptions 
and references of the Bible and the life and customs 
of the Holy Land. But we need not visit the Holy 
Land in order to discover the hidden meaning of 
these divine statements. The processes of nature 
are much the same the world over, and here at home 
we may constantly gain instruction as we read to- 
gether the two volumes of the divine Author. I should 
require an abundance of time and an ability which I 
do not possess, if I should propose to open this sub- 
ject to you in every particular. I shall be satisfied if 
I can convince you of the possibilities — so rich and 
fruitful — that wait upon your personal endeavors in 
this direction. For after all, what we learn by per- 
sonal endeavor is permanently helpful to us. The 
man who has discovered for himself the significance 
of one of these sacred analogies will be eager to add 
to his knowledge by new discoveries. He will fill his 
mind with the words of Christ, even when those 
words are mysterious to him, and then he will gladly 
find that nature has a key, which unlocks the mys- 
teries and permits him to welcome the truth. Thus 
he will live in expectation. His walks abroad, through 
meadows, gardens, or forests, will be as interrogative 



32 SUB URBAN LIFE. 

as are the walks of miners when they hope to be 
able to locate a claim. 

Perhaps I may aid you somewhat, if I develop the 
methods of this study by a single reference to a com- 
parison used by our Lord. He was preaching in 
Galilee, and in the early spring. The hills were 
carpeted with flowers, and His audience were seated 
upon them. In the midst of His sermon He said : 
" Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow ; 
they toil not, neither do they spin, and yet I say 
unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not 
arrayed like one of these." The lilies were there to 
enforce the great and important lesson which their 
Master was announcing, and they are still present to 
offer Him their service. Without toiling, without 
spinning, with none of the fret and worry which are 
so common in human life, they grow to their own ap- 
pointed perfection, and that is the beauty of form 
and the delicacy of fragrance which no royalty can 
command. Simply by fulfilling the law of nature, 
simply by utilizing the opportunities of nature, the 
lily matures and presents its flower. Who can fail to 
grasp the thought of the great Teacher ? The lily is 
true to itself, and to God — hence the perfection ; 
while man with his neglects and self-confidences is 
always striving after some ideal which he never at- 
tains. Let him learn obedience of the lily. Let him 
determine to respect God's method of growth in the 



S UB URBAN LIFE. 3 3 

spiritual life ; and then let him await calmly and 
hopefully the promised result. " He that believeth 
shall not make haste." We are to grow up into Him 
in all things, and growth requires time. Let us not 
expect too much of young disciples. Jesus said that 
the seed in the good ground brought forth fruit with 
patience ; and at another time, He said to His anxious 
disciples, " in your patience, possess ye your souls." 
Ah, friends, " ye have need of patience, that after 
ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the 
promise." 

The beauty of the lily, we can not fail to notice, is 
a living beauty. The lily borrows no splendor from 
colors which are not its own. The raiment of Solo- 
mon, magnificent as it was, could be exchanged for 
the rags of a beggar. Many a king has been stripped 
of the purple. But the living beauty of a holy char- 
acter is as real and as personal as is the adornment of 
the lily. It can never be taken away from the Chris- 
tian. While it is most attractive in the conspicuous 
positions of earthly honor and renown, it is equally 
attractive in the humble abodes of poverty, in the 
wards of hospitals, in captivity, in dungeons. There 
is nothing artificial in the character which can thus 
manifest the grace of God. 

Then our dear Lord directs attention to the indi- 
vidualizing features of the divine interest, " like one 

of these," — even one lily, surely an insignificant ob- 
2* 



34 SUB URBAN LIFE. 

ject ! — is regarded by God. " We take up at ran- 
dom," the botanist remarks,* " any single plant from 
a whole meadowful, and we find that it is as complete 
in all its parts, and as admirably adapted for its pur- 
pose, as though it were the only object in the uni- 
verse ; and untold millions of such flowers are born 
and die every year in lonely places, where no human 
eye beholds them, and their sweetness seems to be 
wasted on the desert air." Is there no encourage- 
ment in this assurance? Who does not sometimes 
feel that his poor life is of very little account, and 
that even God must overlook him? We seem to be 
lost in the mass of humanity. There are so many per- 
sons in the world, and we are so insignificant ! " What 
is man that Thou art mindful of him?" Is the indi- 
vidual considered, or is consideration reserved for the 
race ? May / pray, and will God hear me ? Shall I 
live forever, and is there a mansion in the- Father's 
house for me? Jesus answered these questions by 
pointing to the lily, " like one of these," even one. 
" And if God so clothe the grass of the field, which 
to-day is and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall 
He not much more clothe you, oh, ye of little faith ?" 
Yes ! we may trust Him. Like the Good Shepherd 
who knows His sheep, and calls His own sheep by 
name, He regards us individually, so that we may 



* " Two Worlds are Ours,'' p. 5. 



SUB URBAN LIFE. 3 5 

joyfully say, as Paul did, " He loved me and gave 
Himself for me" 

The lily in the field is but one of many lilies, while 
the lily in the sick-room, or upon a mission of friend- 
ship, is performing an especial service. And is not this 
also true of every life that has been made beautiful 
by God ? That life adds to the homage which God 
receives from men, so long as it is but one of many 
lives in the Church ; but when it brings itself for 
helpfulness, or sympathy, or strength, or counsel, into 
contact with the needy and the suffering, it discovers 
a peculiar, a distinct, a personal interest, which offers 
unusual homage. Thus an ordinary confession of 
Christ is most welcome, while an extraordinary ex- 
hibition of love in service is doubly welcome. 

We need not pursue these analogies. You under- 
stand me now, I trust, when I say that the natural 
world presents many fresh comments on the truths 
of the Gospel ; and not simply on the truths of the 
Gospel, but on all portions of the Word of God as 
well. Our contact with the natural world becomes 
an expositor. How much more meaning there seems 
to be in this out-of-doors book, the Bible, when we 
study it out of doors. " Thy righteousness," ex- 
claims the psalmist, " is like the great mountains." 
What a sublime comparison ! How suggestive ! Yet 
it needs the mountains to make it evident. How 
can a man of the pavements, who never sees a moun- 



36 SUBURBAN LIFE. 

tain, grasp a thought like this? How impressive the 
thought is when it is considered in the presence of 
some bold, ragged, moss-covered cliffs like the Pali- 
sades ! " Thy judgments are a great deep "; without 
the ocean to send back an answer, what will our in- 
quiries into the meaning of that magnificent simile 
avail? "With Thee is the fountain of life"; where 
but to a living spring shall we go to gain an appre- 
ciation of the outpouring, effusive nature of life, 
which finds its perennial source in God ? Thus the 
opportunities of suburban life become very precious 
to the student of the Word. He walks abroad in pur- 
suit of knowledge, and he returns with confirmations 
of the divine origin of the sacred volume, which are 
more eloquent to him than the grapes of Eshcol were 
in the camp of Israel, when they were presented in 
proof of the fertility of the Promised Land. 

3d. Christian fellowship discovers its sacredness in 
the intimacy of suburban life. Now, I shall be di- 
verted from my purpose, and shall consume valuable 
time, if I undertake to meet the complaints which 
often arise respecting the reserve, the distance, or 
the unfriendliness of suburban life. They are real, 
and I regret that they are. But they are not peculiar 
to suburban life. The city is well acquainted with 
them. There is no place in the world where one can 
be as lonely as in a great city ; there is no solitude 
like the solitude of a great crowd. And then, too, 



SUB URBAN LIFE. 3 7 

we are apt to think that the small talk, the common 
gossip, which happens to concern our affairs, is the 
worst, the most contemptible small talk and gossip 
that can be heard. Yet we have only to cross over 
to the next town to match it ; or we have only to 
commune with the past to discover its successful 
rival. The government of the tongue, alas, it is not 
one of the lost arts ; it is still one of the undiscovered 
arts. We may not hope to witness its beneficent, 
practical rule, until there is a complete submission to 
God of the human heart : for " out of the abundance 
of the heart the mouth speaketh." 

Without the exercise of a critical spirit, however, 
we may readily appreciate, I imagine, the sacred- 
ness of Christian fellowship, where intimacy is pos- 
sible. And the circumstances of life, the informality, 
the quiet, the leisure, which a suburban residence 
allows, are most favorable to the maturing of friend- 
ships. Christian character develops in connection 
with friendship. The early Church was a brother- 
hood. We lose a great deal when we lose the stimu- 
lating energy of religious conversation. " Iron sharp- 
eneth iron ; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of 
his friend." We must learn to converse. It is easy 
to talk ; but talking is not conversation. Most of our 
talking is about individuals, while the best of our con- 
versation is upon themes. When the two disciples 
were on their way to Emmaus they communed to- 



38 



SUBURBAN LIFE. 



gether. Their communion was not a recital of per- 
sonalities about Peter, James, and John, but an earn- 
est consideration of the sublime truths of the Lord's 
death and resurrection. We need more of such com- 
munion. These high themes must become a part of 
familiar speech. I see no reason why the countenance 
should assume a solemn aspect, and the voice assume 
unnatural tones, when we converse about " Jesus and 
His love." Let us be frank and ingenuous, brethren ! 
Let us encourage holy conversation. Let us welcome 
the questions of children. Let us prize the mature 
wisdom of old age. 

"For conversation, choose what theme we may, 
And chiefly when religion leads the way, 
Should flow, like waters after summer showers, 
Not as if raised by mere mechanic powers. 
The Christian, in whose soul, tho' now distress'd, 
Lives the dear thought of joys he once possess'd, 
When all his glowing language issued forth, 
With God's deep stamp upon its current worth, 
Will speak without disguise, and must impart. 
Sad as it is, his undissembling heart, 
Abhors constraint, and dares not feign a zeal, 
Or seem to boast of fire he does not feel. 
The song of Sion is a tasteless thing, 
Unless when rising on a joyful wing, 
The soul can mix with the celestial bands, 
And give the strain the compass it demands." 

Thus writes Cowper of the nobility of conversation 
I would, my friends, that we might appreciate it. We 
prize these friendships. They are sincere. We dis- 



S 1TB URBAN LIFE. 39 

cover their strength when life's emergencies present 
themselves. Oh, that we might realize the best re- 
sults of friendship in a generous, spiritual improve- 
ment ! 

4th. Suburban life affords unusual advantages for 
reading, meditation, and prayer. We have the time 
which city life does not allow ; we escape many of 
the temptations which city life presents. Yet we 
hear the roar of the city ; we feel the beating of its 
pulse ; we catch its thought as quickly as it is coined. 
Distance from the city means dulness. But suburban 
life is not distant. It is of the city, and yet not in 
the city. Therefore, under its own conditions it must 
mature. Reading, meditation, and prayer are all pos- 
sible. Reading fills the mind with the treasures of 
thought. The past and the present meet in reading. 
Books are cheap. The noble spirits of other ages and 
lands become the companions of the man who reads. 
The interest in such companionship should and may 
be cultivated. " He that walketh with wise men shall 
be wise." God permits us to enjoy this great privi- 
lege, and in this way to secure a wisdom that is from 
above. Be careful, then, in your selection of read- 
ing. Select your reading, as you properly select your 
friends. An introduction commends one as an ac- 
quaintance, and an acquaintance may become a friend. 
Let it be so with books. Indiscriminate reading is as 
bad as indiscriminate contact with mankind. Wait a 



4 o S UB URBAN LIFE. 

little. Life is too short and the mind is too sacred 
to be abused. Many books may be disregarded en- 
tirely, while a few books will repay close study. Em- 
erson has said that " Nature is much our friend in 
this matter. Nature is always clarifying her water 
and her wine. No nitration can be so perfect. She 
does the same thing by books as by her gases and 
plants. There is always a selection in writers, and 
then a selection from the selection." Let us try and 
be wise. We want the best. 

Then with reading we should associate meditation. 
After the Apostle had urged Timothy to " give at- 
tendance to reading," he added the counsel, " medi- 
tate upon these things." Reading resembles eating, 
and meditation digestion. By eating, food is received 
into the body, and by digestion it is assimilated ; 
by reading, truth is received into the mind, and by 
meditation it is appropriated as experience. Until 
we meditate upon truth, we do not really possess it. 
The quiet hours of the Lord's Day are especially fa- 
vorable to meditation ; and he who loses this blessing 
of holy time, deprives himself of a rare privilege. 
For this reason, as well as for others, we should guard 
the sacredness of the Lord's Day. No men need it 
more than the men of active business pursuits. Seven 
days of work, seven days of material interests, seven 
days in the smoke and grime of the world, seven days 
with care as a despotic master, who could endure 



SUBURBAN LIFE. 



41 



the ceaseless round with lash and spur to keep him 
ever at his utmost speed ! God is merciful. He 
gives a rest. The seventh part of time is consecrated 
to man's supreme, eternal interests. In meditation, 
sweet and peaceful, let us spend the hours of the hal- 
lowed day, going from them to resume toil with the 
consciousness that we carry with us the smile of God. 

" The spirit of the holy eve 

Comes through the silent air 
To feeling's hidden spring, and wakes 

A gush of music there. 
And the far depths of ether beam 
So passing fair, we almost dream 
That we can rise and wander thro' 
Their open paths of trackless blue. 

" Each soul is filled with glorious dreams, 

Each pulse is beating wild, 
And thought is soaring to the shrine 

Of glory undefined ! 
And holy aspirations start, 
Like blessed angels from the heart, 
And bind — for earth's dark ties are riven — 
Our spirits to the gate of Heaven." * 

Then prayer becomes the natural language of de- 
vout, appreciative feeling. The call to prayer is not 
the voice of muezzin from some lofty minaret, nor the 
tones of swinging bell from the church spire, but the 
prompting of the heart. On bended knee, in silent 
closet, the child of God pours out his aspirations and 



* George D. Prentice. 



42 SUB URBAN LIFE. 

his love, and invokes a blessing which God only can 
bestow ; and then in many quiet moments of the day, 
when the eye is filled with the beauty of the divine 
workmanship ; at the evening sunset,*when the horizon 
glows as if it had become, indeed, the vestibule of 
Heaven ; beneath the stars, when the pale light, so 
soft and soothing, seems almost like the greeting of 
distant residents of other worlds, prayer discovers its 
blessedness in brief ejaculations of adoring wonder, 
in restful communings with the Father of spirits, in 
earnest entreaties that grace may abound. 

Under influences such as these, the religious life 
matures with strength and symmetry. God's Word is 
the Book, and ouF meditation upon its truths is sweet, 
while prayer clarifies the spiritual vision to discover 
new realities in the sacred Word, and promotes a fel- 
lowship which we have with the Father and with His 
Son Jesus Christ. 

Our walk to Bethany has suggested a theme which, 
while unusual, is still pertinent. God has blessed us, 
my friends, with opportunities of spiritual improve- 
ment, which we should appreciate and improve. 
Ours is a Christian suburb. The men who organized 
this community were wise in making the church cen- 
tral to its life. We who have come after them have 
endeavored to be true to their good purpose. Kindly 
influences prevail. The name of our divine Re- 
deemer is the magnetism which secures our prosperity 



SUBURBAN LIFE. 



43 



and happiness. Consider these opportunities. How 
are you using them ? " Freely ye have received, 
freely give/' our Saviour said. Do you recognize the 
obligation ? God desires your service. Are you ren- 
dering it ? By and by you will leave us and these 
pleasant surroundings, leave us on that journey from 
which no traveller returns. What then will you carry 
with you ? What results will you present as the 
recompense of your favored life? We shall meet 
at the Day of Judgment, — you to answer for your 
fidelity, and I to answer for mine. Oh ! brethren 
and friends, what will be the joy of that great day, 
if we shall all meet on the right hand, if we shall 
all hear the " come, ye blessed ! " 



III. 



THE DIVINE ESTIMATE OF MAN. 

"How much then is a man better than a sheep? "— 
Matt. xii. 12. 

A GOOD question is an argument in itself. It cov- 
ers the truth as completely as an elaborate statement 
can, and then sends it on its mission with the impetus 
of a projectile. The great teachers of antiquity made 
frequent use of this method of instruction. Solomon 
among the Hebrews and Socrates among the Greeks 
were illustrious examples of the power which a wise 
man may exercise by asking questions. The Rabbin- 
ical schools of Jerusalem undertook to train their pu- 
pils in this most delicate art, and as a consequence 
the streets and market-places of villages and towns 
throughout Judea and Galilee resounded with the 
angry disputes which these skilful questions aroused. 

When Jesus appeared, He entered heartily into the 
life of His time. There was nothing of the John the 
Baptist about Him. Where men were accustomed 
to congregate, there He presented Himself, and the 
themes which were of pressing interest were the 
themes which He wished to discuss. His attitude in 
(44) 



THE DIVINE ESTIMATE OF MAN 



45 



the Temple, when He was only twelve years of age, 
was prophetic of His entire career; for He was seated 
in the midst of the learned doctors, and He was both 
hearing them and asking them questions. As soon 
then as it became generally known that He could 
speak with authority, His instruction was eagerly 
sought. " The common people heard Him gladly!" 
He met the unuttered desires of their hearts, and en- 
couraged them to a familiarity, which quickly became 
expressive. Thus He was able to correct their errone- 
ous opinions, and to confirm their faith. He was con- 
siderate, and yet firm. The law of God had been 
covered by the rubbish of their traditions, and He 
wished to bring it to light in its simple beauty ; it had 
been perverted by their false interpretations, and He 
wished to place it clearly before them as a divine 
thought. Especially was this the case with reference 
to the law of the Sabbath — that grand, salutary law, 
which is essential to the best interests of intelligent 
beings. Jesus sought to restore the Sabbath to its 
original position in the divine economy. He endeav- 
ored to make it spiritually effective, to give it once 
more to man as the brightest, the most helpful day of 
the week. In this endeavor, however, He was met 
by the most intense and bitter opposition. Questions 
and answers flew thick and fast whenever He touched 
upon this important subject. 

Upon one occasion in a synagogue of Galilee, He 



46 THE DIVINE ESTIMA TE OF MAN 

met a man with a withered hand. The Sabbath 
-question was then prominent, and His opponents 
were very anxious to find Him guilty of some gross 
violation of the law. Pointing to the man, they asked 
Him, " Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath days?" His 
prompt reply was a question which drew their atten- 
tion to the approved conduct of a shepherd whose 
sheep had fallen into a pit on the Sabbath. Did he 
not lay hold on it, asked Jesus, and lift it out ? What 
else should he dp ? What else would the Word of 
God teach him to do ? Without waiting for a reply, 
He instantly raised another question, which covered 
the whole case and was itself an unanswerable argu- 
ment. " How much then is a man better than a 
sheep ?" 

In this way, Jesus exhibited the divine estimate of 
man. He directed attention to a shepherd's interest 
in a sheep. When the exalted character of man's 
life is considered, it is certainly reasonable to believe 
that God must regard man with a solicitude as genu- 
ine as that which a sheep receives from a shepherd. 
At once, therefore, we are permitted to use the many 
references of our Lord to the shepherd life of Pales- 
tine, as we undertake to acquaint ourselves with God's 
estimate of man. 

1st. Jesus speaks of a sheep as the property of a 
shepherd, and of man as belonging to God. In the 
beautiful parable, which John alone has recorded, the 



THE DIVINE ESTIMATE OF MAN. 47 

ownership of the shepherd is particularly emphasized. 
There may be assistants, or hirelings, who are ap- 
pointed to protect and to lead the flock, but the shep- 
herd is the owner. " To him, the porter openeth ; 
and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth 
them out. And when he putteth forth his own sheep, 
he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him ; for 
they know his voice." What could be more personal? 
The sheep knows the shepherd, and the shepherd has 
a name for the sheep. From the midst of other flocks 
he can quickly separate his own, as he moves away 
with a clear, shrill call. Then, in time of danger, he 
is ready to risk his own life in defence of the sheep. 
" Thy servant," said David to Saul, " kept his father's 
sheep, and there came a lion and a bear, and took a 
lamb out of the flock ; and I went out after him, and 
smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth, and 
when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, 
and smote him, and slew him." "The good shep- 
herd," Jesus remarked, "giveth His life for the sheep." 
They are His property. He will not suffer them to 
be taken from Him. " I lay down my life for the 
sheep." " My sheep hear my voice, and I know 
them, and they follow me ; and I give unto them 
eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall 
any man pluck them out of my hand." 

Now, it is quite impossible for any one to read 
that parable without inquiring as to God's personal 



4 8 THE DIVINE ESTIMATE OF MAN. 

interest. What can it mean, if it does not teach 
that God regards us individually, and that God claims 
us as His own ? God is infinitely great and glorious 
and the affairs of the universe require the constant 
w atchfulness of the Divine intelligence. There is an 
eye that never sleeps, and an activity that knows no 
cessation. The providence of God is the hand upon 
the helm, whose judicious pilotage secures safety and 
a desirable progress. We are not driven to and fro 
by the winds of chance, and we are not borne irre- 
sistibly by the strong currents of fate, because God 
rules. In His estimate, human interests are very 
precious. Our earth is small in bulk, the Bethlehem 
of worlds, indeed, and yet its moral quality, its spirit- 
ual importance must outweigh the vast size of planets 
which have upon them no intellectual life. Science 
confirms revelation in thus elevating a reasonable and 
responsible being to the position of honor and dig- 
nity. The relative value of worlds can not be esti- 
mated by the standards of platform scales. The 
moral is superior to the intellectual, and the intel- 
lectual to the material ; and a thought, or an affec- 
tion, or a noble deed can not be announced in terms 
of pounds and ounces. This earth of ours is to the 
universe of God what the plain of Marathon is to 
the geography of Greece, or the field of Waterloo is 
to the geography of Europe — the theatre of a deci- 
sive struggle. Here sin and redemption have met in 



THE DIVINE ESTIMATE OF MAN. 49 

mortal combat, — sin organized and marshalled by 
Satan, the Prince of the fallen angels, and redemp- 
tion under the command of the Son of God. Can God 
be an indifferent spectator of such a conflict ? Will 
He leave man to himself, when He " so loved the 
world that He gave His only begotten Son " ? 

But this general interest on the part of God must 
be special also, and personal. Indeed, it is hard to con- 
ceive of a general providence that is not special and 
personal. The insignificant events play a very im- 
portant part. God often works with minorities. It 
was the floating seaweed around his vessel that en- 
couraged Columbus to pursue his voyage after his 
comrades had given up all hope of seeing land ; it 
was a tear upon his mother's cheek that kept Wash- 
ington out of the British navy and thus gave to our 
country a splendid patriot ; it was a father's solic- 
itude for his absent boys that sent Joseph out of 
the tents of Jacob to visit his brethren, and subse- 
quently to condition the history of the world. The 
accuracy of science is very suggestive of the attitude 
of God. Science insists that regard must be had for 
every grain of sand, for every drop of water, for every 
breath of air. Why then should it be thought a thing 
incredible that God should look upon man as His 
own, His creature, His child? The statements of 
the Bible in this particular are not unreasonable. 
They meet a response in every penitent, trustful soul. 
3 



5 o THE DIVINE ESTIMATE OF MAN 

Prayer is encouraged by them. They rebuke anxiety. 
Love is aroused. They stimulate hope. God is great, 
but never too great to be indifferent to us. He made 
us for Himself. He loves us, even in our sins. Around 
us He places the many evidences of His bounty. 
" Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord 
pitieth them that fear Him. For He knoweth our 
frame ; He remembereth that we are dust." More 
willing is He to bestow the Holy Spirit — His own 
gracious presence — than earthly parents are to give 
good gifts unto their children. If we neglect Him, 
He is grieved, and He esteems our neglect as rob- 
bery ; if we serve Him, He rejoices, and He visits our 
fidelity with the choicest recompense. What, then, 
shall we say of our disregard of God, of our prayer- 
less years, of our ungrateful conduct? Can we ex- 
cuse them ? Has he who lives without reference to 
God, whose life is a practical denial of the existence 
of God, any adequate apology? Think of his attitude ! 
He belongs to God. God has a right to demand obe- 
dience of him. Yet he thinks not of this relation, 
and never once looks up to say, " My Father, I am 
Thine." Then when profligacy is evident, when this 
life — God's life — is marred and defiled and brutalized, 
what a spectacle is presented ! We see the filthy 
tramp upon the streets, and we wonder if he was 
ever a clean, sweet babe ; and we see the profligate 
in his debauchery, and we wonder that God tolerates 



THE DI VINE ESTIMA TE OF MAN. 5 j 

his presence on the earth. Oh, the waste of sin ! 
Oh, the ingratitude of sin ! Oh, the injustice that 
God receives through sin ! Let these sad realities 
not be named among us, my friends, for God has 
called us unto holiness. In His presence, life dis- 
covers its true significance. " If they obey Him and 
serve Him, they shall spend their days in prosperity 
and their years in pleasures." God dealeth with us as 
with sons. He desires our love. He welcomes our 
fidelity. " Godliness is profitable unto all things, 
having promise of the life that now is, and of that 
which is to come." In this direction you can not 
mistake. A recognition of God's ownership will brace 
every energy and guide every purpose. The finest 
product of our humanity is the spirituality which is 
responsive to the direct, personal appeal of God. 
Enoch walked with God until his refinement became 
ethereal; and the sturdy Elijah was borne by the 
momentum of his devoted life to the rapt vision and 
the triumphal ascent. Paul enriched his immortal 
nature with the rarest gems of truth, as he submitted 
himself completely to the evident control of God ; 
and John diffused a heavenly radiance among the 
churches, as he sat in the evening twilight of the 
first century, with God"s blessing on his holy life. 
We can suggest nothing better. Life is precious. 
You may despise it, but God does not. Let us seek 
to share His estimate respecting ourselves, and also 
respecting one another and all mankind. 



5 2 THE DIVINE ESTIMA TE OF MAN 

2d. In His teaching, Jesus exhibits a shepherd's 
interest in a wandering sheep, and God's solicitude 
over a lost sinner. The shepherd is represented as 
leaving the ninety and nine in the wilderness, in order 
that he may go after the one lost sheep. The sheep 
is in danger. It will not do for the shepherd to be 
indifferent. He must gird himself for the toilsome 
search, and then he must patiently endure the ex- 
posure and the weariness. Over the mountains, 
along the banks of streams, through the forests, into 
the swamps, his way may lie, while every hour in- 
creases the necessity of his finding the defenceless 
creature. For among the animals which receive 
man's care, none are so dependent as sheep. When 
they go astray, they wander aimlessly. Unable to 
rest, dissatisfied with the richest pasture, in their 
loneliness, they are torn by briers, wounded by the 
sharp rocks, and frequently devoured by wild beasts. 
Their shepherd's interest is their only hope. Because 
he values them, he does not fail to seek for the lost. 

What a picture is this, my friends, of the folly and 
misery of sin, and the graciousness of God ! Sin is 
folly and also misery. The sinner can give no good 
reason for departing from God, and he finds that he 
is unable alone to make his way back to God. " In 
the common things of our daily experience," remarks 
Archbishop Trench,* " a sheep which could wander 

* " Parables," p. 304. 



THE DI VINE ESTIMA TE OF MAN. 5 3 

away from, could also wander back to, the fold. But 
it is not so with the sheep of God's pasture : this 
could lose, but it could not find itself again ; there is in 
sin a centrifugal tendency, and of necessity the wan- 
derings of this sheep could only be further and fur- 
ther away. Therefore, if it shall be found at all, it 
shall only be by its shepherd going to seek it ; with- 
out this, being once lost, it must be lost forever." 
Clearly did God recognize the condition of a sinner 
when He planned redemption. Redemption, it should 
be remembered, is God's thought. In this matter 
God takes the first step. The Gospel is not man 
seeking God, but God seeking man. Other religions 
begin with man's endeavors to find God, while the 
Gospel alone announces the original purpose of God 
to save. This is an interesting feature, and one that 
is suggestive of divinity. For how else can this re- 
markable fact be explained? The entire religious 
system of the world is reversed by the revelation of 
the Bible. In direct antagonism to every known 
form of faith, which looks eagerly upward from earth 
to Heaven, the revelation of the Bible looks down- 
ward from Heaven to earth. " Herein is love, not that 
we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His 
Son to be the propitiation for our sins." 

But why did God send His Son, and what did the 
sending involve ? I reply that He sent His Son be- 
cause God appreciated the inherent excellence of hu- 



54 THE DIVINE ESTIMA TE OF MAN 

man life ; and the sending involved the humiliation 
and suffering of Bethlehem and Calvary. For a vile 
or a worthless object, there would have been no 
such divine consideration. Intelligence never ex- 
pends the choicest resources on a trivial or useless 
mission. When a complete relief is organized, there 
is evidence of appreciation. What then of the divine 
estimate of man, as it is set forth in the person and 
work of the Son of God ? Can we fail to understand 
it ? Is it possible that we should be indifferent to 
God's regard when we visit the manger and stand be- 
side the cross? A man may think very little of him- 
self and of human nature, but in the presence of this 
holy Saviour he dares not utter his complaints, or 
express his contemptuous feelings. Human nature 
is precious in the sight of God, otherwise the Eternal 
Son would never have prepared Himself by the In- 
carnation, to accomplish our redemption. 

This preparation brought Him from His throne of 
universal dominion to the low estate of infancy. " He 
took upon Him the form of a servant." The feeble- 
ness and dependence of a little child were His ; and 
as He grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with 
God and man, He was always subjected to the limi- 
tations of the flesh. " He made Himself of no repu- 
tation." His accepted position was one of decent 
poverty. He was not a beggar; and yet He had not 
where to lay His head. But His position did not dis- 



THE DIVINE ESTIMA TE OF MAN 5 5 

turb Him. The most exalted position of earthly 
grandeur would have been nothing to Him, whose 
proper empire is the vast universe. He was with the 
poor, because most men are poor, and because spirit- 
ual influences usually reach the rich from the poor. 
The poor of this world have their riches in faith. He 
wished to reach man as man, and not man in the 
purple, or man with the sword. As He went from 
place to place the magnetism of sympathy drew 
around Him publicans and harlots, the forlorn and 
the neglected, the outcasts and the degraded. It was 
openly said in contempt : " This man receiveth sin- 
ners, and eateth with them." He had the divine fac- 
ulty of looking into the depths of the human heart. 
Hypocrisy turned from Him with downcast counte- 
nance, while penitence approached with hope and 
courage. From His lips came the command, which 
His disciples obey when they undertake to preach 
the Gospel to every creature. He abolished racial 
distinctions in the higher unity which love enjoins. 
The freeman and the slave were alike to Him, in- 
asmuch as He cared principally for the manhood 
of each. 

Then as His teaching became prophetic of His 
death, He entered speedily into the shadow of the 
cross. There the gloom increased until the noonday 
midnight of Calvary was reached, and His expiring 
groans were heard. For the sake of lost man, in or- 



56 THE DIVINE ESTIMA TE OF MAN 

der that He might secure his redemption, our blessed 
Saviour met death and yielded to its power. It was 
necessary that the penalty of sin should be borne. 
To bear it himself the sinner must suffer death. If 
another may bear it for him, he may be pardoned and 
saved. In His own body on the tree, Jesus Christ 
bore our sins. Love prompted His sacrifice. His 
regard for man made Him willing to give Himself a 
ransom. Thus He expressed the divine estimate of 
sin, and at the same time the divine estimate of our 
humanity ; for a sacrifice of priceless value would 
only have been made on behalf of very precious lives. 
From this consciousness we may take unspeakable 
comfort. The cross is the measure of the world. 
When we weary, as we sometimes do, of the strife 
and the confusion, of the bitterness and the jealousy, 
of the shame and the loathsomeness of human nature, 
we do well to contemplate the cross. The Son of 
God knew all this, and yet He gave Himself ; He ap- 
preciated the evil, and yet He placed Himself in the 
midst of it. Let us be patient. The water-lily raises 
its pure white petals above the slimy waters of the 
muddy pond. A saint is a redeemed sinner, nothing 
else. From the defilement of earth the population 
of heaven is constantly recruited. When the Son of 
God gives Himself to redeem a man, let us not think 
that man to be beneath our notice, or unworthy of 
our Christian sympathy ! 



THE DIVINE ESTIMA TE OF MAN. 5 7 

3d. Jesus emphasizes the tenderness of God's love 
for a man, when He describes the conduct of a shep- 
herd who has found a sheep. We lose much, if our 
eyes fail to rest upon the words, "When he hath 
found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing." 
There are no reproaches, no punishments, no attempts 
to drag the wandering sheep back to the fold. The 
search has been successful. The silly, miserable crea- 
ture has ceased running, and has waited for the shep- 
herd to approach. Now at last he is near. With a 
gentle, soothing voice he calls the sheep by name ; 
and most lovingly he extends his strong hands to 
disengage it from the thorns. Gently he takes it in 
his arms, and knowing well that it is very tired, he 
carries it on his shoulders. Oh, the wonders of re- 
deeming love! Oh, the sweetness of the Holy Spir- 
it's influence ! Have you ever known it ? Have 
you ever struggled with sin, or suffered yourself to 
be led away by sin, until you were almost in despair? 
Then have you heard the Saviour's invitation, " Come 
and I will give you rest " ? Have you wondered if 
you could be accepted, just as you are ? Have you 
supposed that you must make yourself better before 
God would receive you ? Have you feared the re- 
proaches and chidings which you knew that you de- 
served? Then in looking up penitently have you 
ever experienced the peace of God which passeth all 
understanding? Have you carried in your heart a 

3* 



58 THE DIVINE ESTIMA TE OF MAN. 

calm, restful satisfaction, which has surprised you? 
Oh, friend, it has been the grace of God, whose ten- 
der regard you have thus enjoyed. His ways are not 
our ways. So rash are we, so unforgiving, so cruel, 
so vindictive, that we can hardly believe in the reality 
of His grace. Yet the Bible, you know, tells us about 
the everlasting arms and about the shadow of the 
wings. We may think now and here on this pleasant 
spring morning that such things are not for us, that 
they are too sentimental. But let me remind you 
that the spring mornings do not last all the year. 
We shall become conscious of our need of God. The 
future will have its imperative demands. Will it not 
be a comfort then to know that God, by the activity 
of the Holy Spirit, will be to us just what a shep- 
herd is to a sheep, when " he layeth it on his shoul- 
ders, rejoicing " ? Poor, weary soul, there is no more 
opportunity for wandering ! Weak and exhausted, 
there is nothing left but to rest, just as God has 
asked us to, on His holy promises, without anxiety, 
without fear, without any endeavor after an expe- 
rience, without much thought, indeed ! 

" Sweet in the confidence of faith 
To trust His firm decrees ; 
Sweet to lie passive in His hands, 
And know no will but His." 

4th. The joy and glory of man's recovery by God 
appear in what Jesus says of the unity of the flock 



THE DIVINE ESTIMA TE OF MAN. 59 

and the safety of the many folds. We must thank 
the revisers of the New Testament for correcting one 
reading at least, which has apparently sanctioned the 
grave mistakes of Christendom. They have made 
public the proper translation of the words concerning 
the many folds and the one flock. " And other sheep 
I have which are not of this fold : them also I must 
bring, and they shall hear my voice ; and they shall 
become one flock, one shepherd." Unity with di- 
versity; one spirit and many forms, or expressions. 
Oh ! that Christendom might learn this essential les- 
son of catholicity, and that we might cease to hear 
about the one, the only fold! There is a tradi- 
tion among the Germans, which Uhland, their lyric 
poet, has embalmed in verse, to preserve the con- 
ception of a lost church. Somewhere in the depths 
of the forest there is a church, the way to which 
has been lost. The traveller, even in the night, 
often hears the sweet sounds of its chimes, and he 
says, " There are the winds, playing upon the bells of 
the lost church." Occasionally a favored mortal has 
found his way to its shrine, and has there witnessed 
the simplicity of a pure worship and the fellowship 
of a holy love. But no one has ever been able to re- 
trace such steps, and to lead others to that sacred 
place. Multitudes sigh over and after the lost church, 
and the restoration of the time when, as Ambrose 
finely says: "The cross stood like the mast of a 



6o THE DIVINE ESTIMATE OF MAN. 

ship, to which men might cling in the wreck of the 
world." 

" In human speech I could not tell 

All that I saw in that blest shrine. 
The chastened twilight suited well 

With sculptured forms of maids divine, 
The martyred saints of God, and soon 

There shone a flush of glowing light 
That brought a fresher life, like noon, 

And brighter worlds appeared to sight." 

Do we not discover a very high appreciation of the 
possibilities of a redeemed humanity, when we listen 
to our Saviours intercessory prayer ? That prayer is 
a prophecy. When He, the divine Lord, prayed for 
His disciples that " they all may be one, as Thou, 
Father, art in me, and I in Thee, that they also may 
be one in us," He understood Himself. He was asking 
for a consummation which grace is able to realize. We 
may be one. Love may unite us. Swords may be 
beaten into ploughshares and spears into pruning- 
hooks. Humanity, through redemption, is capable 
of this heavenly fellowship. It is to be known. The 
earth is to acknowledge it. The angels are to rejoice 
over it. The Saviour is to see of the travail of His 
soul and to be satisfied. Not the unity of compul- 
sion, not the unity of death, but the strong, enduring, 
intelligent, cordial unity of love. "And this com- 
mandment have we from Him, that he who loveth 
God love his brother also." 



THE DIVINE ESTIMATE OF MAN. 6 1 



Meanwhile, and in preparation for that delightful 
consummation, He leadeth me beside the still waters, 
and He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. 
His grace, and that alone, quickens my spirituality 
to such a degree that the lofty themes of inspiration 
are my delight, that communion with God is possible, 
that holiness becomes a clear and definite ambition. 
Facing now toward God, with sin forgiven, with the 
spirit renewed and in part sanctified, with every right 
impulse to direct and stimulate, with endless ages as 
the vista of the Christian life, what must be before us, 
of what are we capable, unto what shall we attain? 
In glowing terms, a gifted writer* of our day and 
land has recorded his convictions and hopes in a pas- 
sage of rare beauty : " It seems to me to glorify life, 
it seems to me to banish the shadow of gloom from 
death, to feel that that majestic figure — of Brother, 
Teacher, Friend, Redeemer — which towers supremely 
over the centuries, which made the earth sublime by 
its advent, which seemed in ascending to unite it to 
the heavens, has equal place in worlds to come ! that 
we may trust His imperative word ; that we may 
serve His kingly cause ; that we may see the illu- 
mined universe for us as for Him a house of Victory 
and Peace ! that we may stand, bye and bye, with 
Him amid the light as yet unreached, and say, each 



* Storrs, " Divine Origin of Christianity," p. 357. 



62 



THE DIVINE ESTIMATE OF MAN. 



one : ( I believed in Thy religion ; I saw its triumphs 
in the earth ; I felt its power in my heart ; I rose to 
God in love upon it ; I foreknew by it, what I now 
find, Eternal Life.' " 

Oh ! brethren, when I think of these possibilities, 
when I realize somewhat the surpassing opportunities 
of grace, when I know that you and I and all men are 
called of God to accept this splendid inheritance, I 
wonder at my dulness, my apathy, my disregard of 
others and their welfare, and I long to give myself and 
them entirely to God, that we may respond to the so- 
licitations of His love. Not to humiliate us : No ! but 
to honor us ; not to abase us : No ! but to glorify us; 
not to strip us to our shame : No ! but to crown us 
with immortal beauty. This is God's purpose. He 
knows that we can respond. He is not addressing 
the rocks, nor the cedars, nor the pines, nor the king 
of beasts, nor the gentle lambs ; but He is speaking to 
men, whom He has created in His own image and 
after His own likeness, and whom He has redeemed 
with the precious blood of the beloved Son ; to men, 
whom He is prepared to rescue, and then to welcome 
to an experience of perfect joy. Alas, alas, that men 
reject God's mercy, and seek the way of death, when 
life, eternal life, is open to them ! Let it not be so 
with us. But cheerfully recognizing this divine esti- 
mate of man, let us aim to secure " the stature of the 
fulness of Christ." 



IV. 



THE MORAL ENDS OF BUSINESS. 

" Seest thou a man diligent in his business t he 
shall stand before kings ; he shall not stand 
before mean men." — Prov. xxii. 29. 

THE Proverb addresses every one who is engaged 
in business. Business is employment. The employ- 
ment may be more or less important without passing 
beyond the reach of the Proverb. Anything that de- 
mands attention comes within the scope of Solomon's 
maxim. He has coined the experience of a careful 
observer. Life in Jerusalem has exhibited the many 
occupations which engage the residents of a city ; and 
the adjacent country has presented every variety of 
rural interest. The successes and failures of mer- 
chants and statesmen, of farmers and shepherds, of 
mechanics and soldiers, have announced themselves 
to him. His estimate has a broad application. As a 
king, he has frequently commended the diligence 
which has elevated a subject to a position of promi- 
nence and influence. 

The thought of Solomon, however, does not turn 

principally to the material ends of business. Business 

(63) 



64 THE MORAL ENDS OF BUSINESS. 

has reference to such ends ; and with many persons, 
those are the only ends of business. Business, as they 
regard it, is for the sake of money. When money is 
realized, business prosperity is evident ; and when 
money is not realized, business is a disappointment. 
But it should be remembered that a large share of the 
business of life can have nothing whatever to do 
with money. There are countless services which are 
performed without any idea of money. Duty or 
love must explain them. Yet they are business, and 
business of a most exalted character. With these 
services the sagacious king is well acquainted. He 
knows that they possess a moral value, and that dili- 
gence in them leaves a permanent impression. It is 
to this impression, as it shapes and adorns the soul, 
that he directs his Proverb. The " man diligent in 
his business " secures his manhood. His employment 
becomes his discipline. Out from his business he 
brings a generous spirituality. He is unlike the fool 
of the New Testament Parable, whose entire wealth 
was stored in barns and granaries, because he resem- 
bles Simon Peter, who could say to the cripple at the 
gate of the Temple : " Silver and gold have I none ; 
but such as I have, give I thee," or Paul the Apostle, 
who could write, " As having nothing, and yet pos- 
sessing all things," He is " rich toward God," even if 
he must be counted among the " poor of this world." 
The moral ends of business are the returns, which no 



THE MORAL ENDS OF BUSINESS. 65 

bankruptcy can threaten, no thief can steal, no fire 
can destroy. They are safe. As solid bullion, they 
are transported to the New Jerusalem, where they 
will enhance the joys of eternal life. In the presence 
of the King of kings, the diligent man may hope to 
stand, as the greeting is heard : " Well done, thou 
good and faithful servant, thou hast been faithful 
over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many 
things." 

We should have no difficulty, my friends, in rising 
to the grand estimate of the Hebrew king. We are 
engaged in business. With many different employments 
our time is filled. There must be an end or purpose 
which holds us. We should not engage in business 
simply for the sake of engaging in business. Business 
is a means to an end, rather than an end. What 
then is its end ? Is it material or moral ? Are we 
absorbed in pursuits whose returns can all be ex- 
hibited on a balance-sheet, or have we learned to 
prize the returns which are moral ? I fear that to 
some of us the suggestion may seem novel, if not ab- 
surd, that the moral ends of business are of principal 
importance. The suggestion crosses the lines of our 
familiar thoughts. We are not accustomed to it. 
Yet after all, is it not a wise and true suggestion ? 
Has not God given us the business of life in order 
that we may secure therefrom a training which will 
develop holy characters ? If this is His design, should 



66 



THE MORAL ENDS OF BUSINESS. 



we not undertake our business in obedience to the 
command : " Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do 
it with thy might " ? For " a man diligent in his busi- 
ness " should become possessed of a large amount of 
spiritual wealth. 

As we consider this very practical subject, we 
should remember that, 1st, A diligent man is per- 
mitted to believe that an honorable business is a divine 
calling. We have adopted an unfortunate usage 
which leads us to designate one particular business, 
that of the minister of religion, as a sacred profession 
or calling. This usage is certainly good, if it does 
not lead to a discrimination against other employ- 
ments. But that is just what it does, and conse- 
quently it is evil. There are hundreds of worthy 
men and women who are pursuing the quiet life of 
the farm, the shop, the counting-room, or the house- 
hold without any conception that theirs is a divine 
calling. They believe that the minister of religion 
has been called to a sacred work, but they can not dis- 
cover the sacredness of their work. Yet their work 
is sacred, and their calling is a divine calling, just as 
truly as his is. Many pages of the world's history 
must be turned before the special institution of an 
order of religious teachers is met. When God 
created man, however, He placed him in the Garden 
of Eden to dress it and to keep it, and thus He called 
him to be a farmer ; and when He ordained that fee- 



THE MORAL ENDS OF BUSINESS. 67 

ble infancy should make an appeal to parental 
strength and love, He sanctified the duties of the 
household ; when He chose out of all the numerous 
inhabitants of the earth the father of the faithful, He 
sent him from Ur of the Chaldees upon journeys 
which compelled him to traffic with the Egyptians 
and Canaanites, and thus Abraham became a mer- 
chant; and when He gave His Son to the humble 
life of Nazareth, Jesus became for many years the 
village carpenter. Perhaps we may have overlooked 
the significance of the divine appointments. Busi- 
ness is God's ordination. The apostles of the early 
church were men of business. Paul did not hesitate 
to hold up his callous hands before the elders of 
Ephesus, and to remind them that " these hands have 
ministered unto my necessities and to them that were 
with me." He it was who sent to Corinth the sharp 
command : " Let every man abide in the same calling 
wherein he was called." The converted slaves were 
restless. They imagined that new opportunities of 
usefulness would be found in new spheres of work. 
Paul checked them, and urged diligence in the par- 
ticular calling which was then theirs. Thus it came 
to pass that the diligence of Christian slaves com- 
mended the Gospel to heathen masters, until the 
splendid palaces of the Roman Empire became the 
homes of our Lord's disciples. 

It is not by accident that " man goeth forth unto 



68 



THE MORAL ENDS OF BUSINESS. 



his work, and to his labor, until the evening." " Very 
plainly," remarks an English writer,* " God has put 
us into such a universe that He only can shape us 
by — destiny only spins its purpose out of us by — ■ 
work. Perhaps we should translate the word in wider 
or narrower senses ; indeed, all that reduces us to ex- 
perience, all that stirs within us the sense of knowl- 
edge, partakes of the nature of work. Every toil may 
be the platform for a higher toil ; and all toils point 
to the consummation and perfection of the worker, 
the invisible, but living, personal soul." We should 
not, therefore, fret and worry because we are in a 
humble place. God has appointed the place, in which 
He looks for our diligence. 

" God doth not need 
Either man's work or his own gifts ; who best 
Bear His mild yoke, they serve Him best ; His state 
Is kingly ; thousands at His bidding speed, 
And post o'er land and ocean without rest ; 
They also serve who only stand, and wait." 

Who does not need the bracing influence of this 
conviction? The minister of religion feels it in his 
business, and so should every one of us. The business 
of life is a divine calling. God recognizes it. By His 
providence He leads the individual into it. There 
He expects that there will be a recognition of the 
moral ends, which are ready to exert a controlling in- 



* Paxton Hood, " Dark Sayings on a Harp," p. 72. 



THE MORAL ENDS OF BUSINESS. 69 

fluence. Thus endeavor secures point and definite- 
ness, and activity finds guidance and comfort, and 
aspiration looks up to God with cheerful hope. The 
estimate of life is completely altered. We hush our 
complaints. We gird our energies. We determine 
to do our best at all times, because we are laborers 
together with God. " Not with eye-service, as men- 
pleasers, but as the servants of Christ, doing the will 
of God from the heart. With good will doing service 
as to the Lord and not to men. Knowing that what- 
soever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he 
receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free." 

2d. "A man diligent in his business" is in a posi- 
tion to appreciate the traits of character which God 
approves. This appreciation will come to him as he 
observes his own life and the lives of others. The 
contact of life with life in business ; the demands 
which are made upon the moral qualities of the soul ; 
the approvals and the condemnations which are evi- 
dent — these are all instructive. The proper study of 
man is man ; and man can be studied most critically 
when he is in the activity of business. Then he dis- 
covers himself, and by a prolonged course of life he 
manifests the characteristics which God commends or 
rebukes. These characteristics appear now in the 
concrete rather than in the abstract, as illustrations 
rather than as statements. The abstract truths, the 
plain statements are to be found in the Word of God, 



yo THE MORAL ENDS OF BUSINESS. 

while their correspondences, the examples, are pres- 
ent in the life of business. Gradually the diligent 
man becomes possessed of the conviction that God is 
right in announcing the traits of character which He 
has presented for our acceptance. The lessons of 
business are confirmatory of the divine counsels and 
commands. 

There is a very plain statement in the Bible of the 
power of love. In his masterly discussion of the 
principles of government, the Apostle reaches the 
conclusion that " love is the fulfilling of the law." 
He makes bold to say this when Nero is Emperor and 
his deputies are governors. He proposes to antago- 
nize their wickedness with the power of love. They 
have all the machinery of government under their 
control. They are in command of a magnificent 
army. They worship, if such men can be said to 
worship, power. Yet Paul is prepared to meet them 
with love. He is ready to match love against power. 
Is he wise ? Has he been carried away by his enthu- 
siasm ? The diligent man can answer. His experi- 
ence has acquainted him with the influential elements 
of character. He has learned to give an appropriate 
estimate to the man who threatens and storms and 
blasphemes, as well as to the man who considers right 
and justice, and who seeks the welfare of his fellow- 
men. He knows that the thunder makes the noise, 
while the lightning hurls the shaft. He has not for- 



THE MORAL ENDS OF BUSINESS. yi 

gotten John the Baptist and Herod, nor our Lord 
and Pilate. Love has opened to his scrutiny in order 
that he may become acquainted with its precious 
contents. These contents include every moral duty. 
All personal, social, and religious interests are here. 
For surely that is a comprehensive statement which 
says that " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with 
all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy 
mind," and " Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." 
Selfishness ultimately digs its own grave. Duplicity 
ultimately smites the deceitful man with the recoil of 
the boomerang. Adoni-bezek was taught by his con- 
tact with business that retribution is the shadow of 
cruelty ; while Mephibosheth was protected by David 
because he was Jonathan's son. Without love there 
can be no desirable progress, no uplifting of the weak, 
no defence of the poor, no consideration of age or 
sex. Where might makes right, there barbarism 
hovers about the door. The kingdom of Dahomey 
has long enjoyed the unenviable notoriety of being 
destitute of love ; and in that kingdom property and 
life are both at the mercy of a despotic tyrant. Love 
would rebuke his despotism, would arrest his bloody 
hand, would give him a new heart, would transform 
his kingdom. Love is wisdom as well as mercy ; 
love is strength as well as grace ; love is duty and 
also privilege. " We then that are strong ought to 
bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please our- 



72 THE MORAL ENDS OF BUSINESS. 

selves. Let every one of us please his neighbor for 
his good to edification." " What do you think fools 
were made for?" Ruskin once asked. Then without 
waiting for an answer, he said : " They were made 
that wise people may take care of them. That is the 
true and plain fact concerning the relations of every 
strong and wise man to the world about him. He 
has his strength given to him, not that he may crush the 
weak, but that he may support and guide them. In 
his own household he is to be the guide and the sup- 
port of his children ; out of his household, he is still 
to be the father, that is, the guide and support of the 
weak and the poor ; not merely of the meritoriously 
weak and of the innocently poor, but of the guiltily 
and punishably poor ; of the men who ought to have 
known better, of the poor who ought to be ashamed 
of themselves." There were certain well-dressed and 
comfortably circumstanced Jews who looked into the 
face of the half-crazed Judas as he threw the price of 
his iniquity upon the pavement at their feet, saying, 
with a sneer, " What is that to us ? See thou to 
that " : and then there was a converted Pharisee 
who wrote in the catholic spirit of our Lord Jesus 
Christ : "As we have therefore opportunity let us do 
good unto all men "; there was the cultured Gallio, 
who dismissed the appeal of justice because he did 
not care to trouble himself with vexatious questions : 
and then there was an apostle who wrote that u pure re- 



THE MORAL ENDS OF BUSINESS. 



ligion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, 
to visit the fatherless and widows in their afflictions, 
and to keep himself unspotted from the world." The 
law of love is the law of considerateness, the law of 
political economy, the law of prudence, the law of 
common sense. 

We may reverse the picture, and thus discover 
renewed evidence of the moral value of business. It 
is not difficult to imagine a household, a community, 
a State, in which the traits of character which God 
approves are all disregarded : we can readily believe 
that some men look at trade as the business of cun- 
ning and greed rather than of honesty and liberality ; 
we can recognize the temporary success which waits 
upon the most corrupt endeavors. These are the 
dazzling pictures of worldly life, whose high colors 
attract undue attention. The Psalmist met them in 
his day, and he was perplexed as he undertook to 
explain them until he went into the sanctuary of 
God ; then understood he their end. We are often 
saddened by the prosperity of the wicked. It tries a 
good man's faith to see that wealth pours into the 
coffers of one who is violating every law of God, 
while his own arduous labors barely yield him his 
daily bread. Yet the good man after all is not un- 
blessed. The moral ends of business are his. But 
for fidelity and industry like his, society would dis- 
integrate and trade would be an impossibility. For 
4 



74 THE MORAL ENDS OF BUSINESS. 

how can society maintain its order if every man's 
hand is against his brother, and how can trade flour- 
ish if there is no confidence in character? Men of 
the world have their portion in this life — a fair por- 
tion, an attractive portion — and yet their portion 
leaves them destitute at last, when they enter upon 
the life whose years are endless. " Be not deceived ; 
God is not mocked ; for whatsoever a man soweth, 
that shall he also reap." 

With that memorable word of the Lord, through 
Micah, upon our lips, " to do justly, and to love 
mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God," we 
might safely address our fellow-men in every depart- 
ment of business. The universal response would be 
a commendation of the inspired statement. Be just, 
be merciful, and be humble before God. What more 
can be desired ? Do not those traits of character 
promise the most complete prosperity ? Justice be- 
fore mercy, and yet justice tempered by mercy ; per- 
fect integrity in speech and conduct, and an integrity 
which is thoughtful and compassionate. Justice and 
mercy exercised always with respect for the perfect 
attributes of the infinite God. An absence of pride. 
The contrition which God loves. Suffer those traits 
to become prevalent, and what may you not expect ? 
What household life will then be known! What a 
pure Christian socialism will be witnessed ! What a 
splendid conception of the possibilities of trade will 



THE MORAL ENDS OF BUSINESS. 75 

obtain among men ! For these are the traits of char- 
acter which can meet the earnest, anxious appeal of 
the world's restlessness, and which can establish the 
world's business upon the solid foundations of truth, 
equity, and love. / 

3d. A diligent man may find that the opportu- 
nities of business are favorable to the development 
of the Christian virtues and graces. One of Krum- 
macher's Parables describes a visit of a Cherub, after 
Adam had tilled the ground and made himself a 
garden full of plants and trees. The Cherub came 
without his flaming sword, and his countenance was 
benignant and kind. " Behold," he said, " no more 
do fruits grow of themselves for you ; you must labor 
to eat bread in the sweat of your brow. But after 
the labor, you rejoice in the fruit acquired by your 
toil, and the full corn-ears are pleasant to your eyes. 
The merciful Jehovah has given you the means of 
creating for yourselves an Eden." 

" His goodness is great even when He chasteneth," 
replied Adam. " We will labor willingly in the sweat 
of our brows. But formerly Jehovah was nearer to 
us, and blessed us, and lifted up the light of His 
countenance on us. What have we to atone for 
this?" 

" Prayer," answered the Cherub. " Toil is the 
earthly; prayer is the heavenly gift of Jehovah." 
" Then Adam lifted up his face, and gave thanks, 



7 6 THE MORAL ENDS OF BUSINESS. 

and prayed, and confessed that the Lord is gracious.' 
The Parable covers the whole truth. Toil and prayer; 
business and devotion ; these are two blessed priv- 
ileges, which God in mercy has conferred upon our 
race. " Not slothful in business ; fervent in spirit ; 
serving the Lord." 

The favorable opportunities of which we speak, are 
those which call for self-restraint, those which call for 
consideration, and those which call for a generous 
beneficence. In the activity of business contact, dil- 
igence discovers many admirable means of grace. 
These we must improve, with a cordial recognition of 
their divine purpose. 

a. First of all, there are many opportunities of self- 
restraint. The fretting, little cares must be met calmly 
and patiently ; the ordinary temptations must be re- 
sisted ; the disappointments must not be allowed to 
produce despair ; the afflictions must witness resigna- 
tion. Self-discipline is a necessity, which is only pos- 
sible in connection with life's business. In the retire- 
ment of his own chamber a man may imagine that 
he has completely subdued himself, while a brief ex- 
perience in the world will probably convince him that 
he has still many very active remainders of corruption. 
The mistake of monasticism has deluded many an 
earnest soul into the belief that a teligious life may 
be advantageously cultivated within the retirement 
of a cell. But such was not our Saviour's conception 



THE MORAL ENDS OF BUSINESS. jj 

when He prayed earnestly that His disciples might 
be kept from the evils of the world without being 
taken out of the world. We need just this discipline, 
my brethren, and we should be quick to appreciate 
it. What is a gilded toy of some land-locked harbor, 
with its smooth lines and well-trimmed yards, as com- 
pared with the weather-beaten merchantman which 
has sailed on every sea ! Moral heroism is realized in 
conflict. It is easy, very easy, to love the lovely and 
to do good to the amiable ; but it is hard, very hard, 
to love your enemies, to do good to those who hate 
you. The cheek may readily be turned for the sec- 
ond kiss of a friend, but the man who will offer his 
cheek for a second blow is a man of magnificent self- 
control. What spectacle is there that is more truly 
divine than power under restraint. Yet, alas, we too 
seldom witness that spectacle. Our impatience, our 
fretfulness, our complaints — these are the blemishes 
on the robe of many a saint. I have somewhere 
read that Mr. Pitt once gave to a manager of the 
Bank of England the advice not to lose his temper, 
if possible, at any time, and never during the hours of 
business. The illustrious statesman himself was an 
excellent example of his own advice. His patience 
seemed inexhaustible. The advice is timely. We may 
all accept it with profit to ourselves and others. What- 
ever our station or our work may be, we may find op- 
portunity for the exercise of patience or self-restraint. 



78 THE MORAL ENDS OF BUSINESS. 

b. There are opportunities, not a few, which call for 
consideration. It is written : " Blessed is he that con- 
sidered the poor." " The poor always ye have with 
you." There are many kinds of poverty. The prob- 
lem of distress is complex. What can we do ? How 
shall relief be brought? The ordinary business of 
each day is an introduction to the problem. Who 
are so well acquainted with the requirements of child- 
life as the women who nurture and train these little 
ones? Who know the condition of the degraded 
classes as well as the men and women who go among 
them with counsel and encouragement? Who can 
appreciate sorrow if he has never had a grief? We 
must not be distant. The intimacy of life is too real. 
" Whether one member suffer, all the members suffer 
with it." We must consider one another in order 
that we may benefit the entire race. The day of Chi- 
nese walls and sealed ports and feudal castles has 
passed. A more open day has dawned. Practical 
Christianity is abroad in search of the needy. Like 
the brave monks of St. Bernard, who keep watch 
upon their snowy mountain for any traveller who 
may be dying from cold and hunger, Christian philan- 
thropy is seeking to "rescue the perishing and care 
for the dying." Its consideration is already manifest- 
ing most blessed results, and is also offering most 
encouraging promises. The problems are not de- 
spised. With devout consecration the best intelli- 



THE MORAL ENDS OF BUSINESS. 79 

genee and effort are given to these interests of moral- 
ity and social order. We are rapidly making history, 
and history, too, of a most encouraging character. 
The future may be safely left to Christianity, if only 
the Holy Spirit will quicken Christians in order that 
we may meet the call of Christ. 

And can any one imagine that such consideration 
will leave no impress on character? How is it with 
the Christians, who are most ready to bear one an- 
other's burdens? How is it with those who imitate 
the Master in going about and doing good ? Surely, 
they have their reward. The culture of the virtues 
and graces proceeds under the most favorable aus- 
pices. The devoted servants of Christ are Christ- 
like in speech and conduct. To one such from our 
own community — a modest woman* — the welcome of 
our Lord has just been spoken. With a heart full of 
tenderness, she gave her life to the poor, neglected 
girls of the city, whose interests she espoused, and 
for whose sake she exhausted her vitality. A noble 
service, beautifully rendered, and as beautifully rec- 
ompensed by Him whose anointing filled the house 
at Bethany with the odor of the spikenard ! For as 
the gentle-hearted woman considered others, her 
Lord considered her, and made His grace to triumph 
in a spirituality which was the beginning of eternal life. 



* Mrs. J. F. Joy. 



8o 



THE MORAL ENDS OF BUSINESS. 



c. There are the opportunities of a generous be- 
neficence. What is the Gospel but love, and what 
is love without beneficence ? Beneficence — the sacred 
art of giving — needs exercise ; and how shall we exer- 
cise ourselves in this grace, if we have nothing to do 
with any form of business? One of your number 
told me the other day that he once discovered a 
spring on the Palisades, which was only noticeable 
because the ground was wet around it. When, how- 
ever, the spring had been cleaned and piped, the wa- 
ters flowed for use and beauty in an inexhaustible 
supply. It is so with love. There are hearts whose 
love is hardly more than the moisture of selfishness. 
There is no outlet ; no opportunity. But when suf- 
fering is present, when the opportunity is at hand, 
when relief is organized, then the love pours out a 
strong, full stream of beneficence. Thus affliction has 
been sanctified, and the memorials of sorrow are often 
blessings to the poor in many ways. When Henry 
I. sailed from Normandy to England, the white ship 
which carried Prince William and his bride was lost. 
The king, it is said, never smiled again. But Theo- 
bald, who was with Henry, and whose grief over the 
loss of Matilda, the princess, his sister, was inconsol- 
able, rose to a grander estimate of the meaning of 
affliction, and gave to Bernard of Clairvaux the 
money with which to erect a house of prayer in the 
beautiful valley of France. Life must carry upon its 



THE MORAL ENDS OF BUSINESS. 8 1 



surface this impressive lesson. We are not to live for 
ourselves. We are only stewards. As God is always 
giving, so must we give constantly, and in giving, 
find the increase of our devotion, the efficiency of our 
strength. 

In one of his emblems, Gotthold says that as he 
was passing a mill he remembered the remark of a 
friend, that " man's heart is like a mill-stone : pour in 
corn, and round it goes, bruising and grinding and 
converting it into flour ; whereas give it no corn, and 
the stone, indeed, turns round, but only grinds itself 
away, and becomes ever thinner, and smaller, and 
narrower." Work is God's benediction. Business is 
His bountiful provision for the safety of man. There 
are moral ends to be secured. Happy is he who se- 
cures those ends in the strengthening and adornment 
of character, so that he becomes prepared to stand 
before "the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the 
only wise God ! " 



V. 



CONCEPTIONS OF GOD AS EXPRESSED 
BY THE SANCTUARY* 

" That thine eyes may be open toward this house 
night and day." — I KINGS viii. 29. 

There is a thought of present interest in the 
petition of the Hebrew king. He has completed the 
magnificent Temple, which is designed to take the 
place of the simple Tabernacle in the worship of God. 
The sacred ark has been deposited in the inner sanc- 
tuary, and the divine response of the descending, 
overshadowing cloud has been received. A song of 
praise has met this welcome expression of approval, 
and Solomon has turned to pronounce a benediction 
upon the great congregation. Then with his face 
toward the cloud which covers the Temple, he has 
prostrated himself upon his knees to engage in prayer. 

His prayer is a remarkable exhibition of the preva- 
lent ideas respecting God. For he addresses the 
Most High with the intelligent reverence which the 
Hebrews alone are able to express. The divine unity 

* Preached after the enlargement of the church edifice. 

(82) 



CONCEPTIONS OF GOD. 83 

and spirituality are recognized, as well as the justice 
and the grace, which are so precious to the chosen 
people. Reference is made to the efficacy of the 
sacrifices, whose significance is an essential element 
of true religion. The order of the Temple, in its 
structure, in its appointments, in its many services, is 
presented as an appeal, which may be expected to se- 
cure the blessing of God. Inasmuch as he believes 
that the commands of God have been met, the king 
rejoices in God's approval. This obedience is mag- 
netic. By it the cloud has been attracted to the 
Temple, upon which it rests as the symbol of the 
divine presence. 

Consequently the petition, which asks that " thine 
eyes may be open toward this house night and day," 
is an expression of Solomon's conviction that the 
Temple with its worship is adapted to the character 
of God. A structure like this, with its brazen altar, its 
laver, its table of shew-bread, its candlestick, its altar 
for incense, its veil and sacred ark ; with its priests 
and sacrifices ; with its elaborate ritual and many ob- 
servances, which are concerned with the reconciliation 
of those who have sinned, can have reference only to 
the worship of Jehovah, who is " merciful and gra- 
cious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and 
truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, 
transgression, and sin." No such temple would have 
been erected by a heathen nation. Idolatry does not 



84 CONCEPTIONS OF GOD. 

express itself in this way when it provides for the 
worship of false gods. Only to the Lord God, who 
has revealed His infinite love in the offering of His 
Son, can such a typical system make an appeal. The 
Temple is simply the response of the Hebrews to the 
revelation of the divine character which was made to 
Moses at Mount Sinai. Thus the convictions of 
Solomon and the religious opinions of his age are 
recorded as their conceptions of God are made 
known. 

This then is the thought which may profitably en- 
gage our attention. Our sanctuary has been re- 
modelled. Through the blessing of God we are once 
more permitted to worship in this place which has 
become very sacred to us. Since we last met here, 
extensive alterations and improvements have been 
made. Our house of worship is now commodious 
and convenient. Every attention has been paid to 
our comfort. We are grateful that we are able to meet 
under such auspicious circumstances. This work, how- 
ever, as it has been planned intelligently, must have 
reference to our ideas of God. This is not a heathen 
temple, nor is it a lyceum. These walls have been 
erected by the devotion of Christians who desire thus 
to secure a place of worship. Our conceptions of God 
have conditioned our efforts : and we are prepared 
now to invoke the blessed presence of Him whose 
we are and whom we serve in the petition of the He. 



CONCEPTIONS OF GOD. 8$ 

brew king, " that thine eyes may be open toward this 
house night and day ! " 

1st. The sanctuary has an intimate relation to the 
worship of the church. Our Puritan ancestors called 
their sanctuaries " meeting-houses," as a protest 
against the baptized idolatry of the middle ages, 
which had attempted to sanctify splendid abbeys and 
costly shrines. In this endeavor, the middle ages 
neglected sadly the spiritual interests of the people. 
Architecture and ecclesiasticism joined hands in the 
work of building and decorating cathedrals and of 
establishing hierarchies. The Bible was neglected. 
The Gospel was seldom preached in its simplicity. 
Education was confined to the universities. Pilgrim- 
ages became a necessity, inasmuch as acceptable 
prayer was supposed to be associated with the ser- 
vices of particular altars. Images of the saints and 
pictures of the Virgin Mary were accepted by the 
ignorant as objects of worship. Superstition pre- 
vailed, and with it intolerance, and with that evil 
cruelty, and with cruelty persecution. Against this 
spirit and these practices, Puritanism, with an open 
Bible, raised its hand and its voice — its hand, which 
held the hammer of the iconoclast, and its voice, 
which thundered out the rebukes and denunciations 
of the Almighty. Religion took possession of the 
popular heart in connection with the labors of Luther 
in Germany, of Calvin in Switzerland, of Tyndale in 



86 



CONCEPTIONS OF GOD. 



England, and of Erasmus in all parts of Europe. 
Men began to realize that they were deprived of 
their rights. Their intelligence, quickened and in- 
formed by the Word of God, which they could read 
in their own languages, asserted itself firmly and in- 
dignantly. An organization was effected. A blow 
for liberty was struck, and a new idea of worship 
instantly gained prominence. In his reply to Sir 
Thomas More's jest about the building of Tenterden 
steeple, Tyndale said : " Since these false monsters 
crope up into our consciences and robbed us of the 
knowledge of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, making us 
believe in such pope, holy works, and to think that 
there was none other way into Heaven, we have 
not wearied to build them abbeys, cloisters, colleges, 
chantries, and cathedral churches with high steeples, 
striving and envying one another who should do 
most." He saw and others with him that the Church 
of the living God is the mystical body of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, and that the visible church " consists of 
all those throughout the world that profess the true 
religion, together with their children." Such a church 
is not to be confounded, even in the language of 
familiar speech, with a stately edifice, which has been 
erected out of the stones of the mountains, out of 
the timber of the forests, out of the gold and silver, 
graven by art and man's device. This is a living 
Temple, which the Holy Spirit fills with the sacred 



CONCEPTIONS OF GOD. 87 

influences of penitence and faith, of peace and love. 
No man can build a church. God alone is able to 
quarry and to fashion the lively stones, and to build 
up a spiritual house. 

There is a story in Church history, which has lived 
because it illustrates the power of these truths of 
God's Word. It is said that when Charles V. was 
holding the Diet of Augsburg, in 1530, a party of 
actors asked leave to present before him a pantomime. 
When permission had been granted, there entered the 
hall a masked figure in a doctor's gown, upon whose 
back was a label, " Johann Reuchlin." He threw 
down upon the floor a bundle of sticks, some straight 
and some crooked, and so departed. Next followed 
another, in similar dress, whose name was Erasmus of 
Rotterdam. He tried to make the crooked sticks 
square with the straight ones ; and then, finding his 
labor in vain, retired with evident confusion. The 
third masked figure was Martin Luther, who set a 
light to the crooked sticks, and when the wood was 
blazing, went out. Then came in the emperor, and 
with drawn sword tried vainly to keep the fire and 
the sticks apart. Last of all, Pope Leo X. appeared, 
wringing his hands and looking about for help. Two 
jars — one full of oil, the other of water— were within 
reach. He passionately seized the oil and poured it 
upon the flames, which, spreading madly, drove him 
away. Puritanism was the fire which no violence of 



88 



CONCEPTIONS OF GOD. 



civil authority, which no cunning of ecclesiasticism 
could arrest. It was fed by the divine Word. The 
truth, as God had made it known, was precious, and 
nothing was allowed to interfere with the progress of 
that truth. Hence Puritanism took pride in calling 
its sanctuaries "meeting-houses"; and the Pilgrims, 
one branch only of the Puritans, met for worship, after 
they had landed on the shores of New England, in 
buildings which were severely plain. There are per- 
sons with us now who can recall the unsightly appear- 
ance of the old white "meeting-house" upon the vil- 
lage green of their native town. Architecture was 
despised. Even the comfort of worshippers was not 
considered. The high pulpit and the straight-back 
pews and the long prayers and the theological ser- 
mons were intimately related. The Pilgrims expressed 
their conceptions of worship. We may think, per- 
haps, that they erred in their severity. We may be- 
lieve, and with good right, that they would have been 
nearer to the truth of God if they had not reacted so 
sharply against the artistic sentiments of the middle 
ages. For God has implanted in man's nature the 
sentiment of the beautiful, and that sentiment must 
somehow be allowed expression in the worship of 
Him who is the perfection of beauty. But we must 
judge them charitably. They were fallible men. Un- 
der similar circumstances we should probably not do 
as well as they did. Pioneer work is rough work. 



CONCEPTIONS OF GOD. 89 

The sappers and miners are always scratched and 
bruised by the contact of their advance. Truth is 
more to us than beauty. As some one has said : " We 
ornament construction, but we do not construct orna- 
ment." The protest of those stirring centuries is 
echoing still. The Church in its spirituality has gained 
a glorious recognition. Christendom no longer tol- 
erates the piracy of the grand old name Catholic by 
Rome or Constantinople, by Canterbury or West- 
minster. When the confession " I believe in the 
holy Catholic Church " is heard, the charity of Chris- 
tian intelligence looks toward each horizon, and also 
heavenward, with the sweet consciousness that all who 
" love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity " are meant. 

" One family, we dwell in Him, 
One Church above, beneath, 
Though now divided by the stream, 
The narrow stream of death." 

Such a church, while its members are here upon the 
earth, must meet for worship ; and the sanctuaries, 
erected with pious devotion, must express the ideas 
of worship which obtain. If those ideas are simple, 
the sanctuaries will be simple ; while, if the ideas are 
associated with many suggestions of human thought, 
the sanctuaries will resemble the cathedrals of the 
middle ages, in which altars are seen, and sacrifices 
are performed, and priests minister, and God's Word 
has little prominence. 



9 o CONCEPTIONS OF GOD. 

2d. The worship of the Church expresses the faith 
which is held concerning God. The purest and most 
acceptable worship will always proceed from a well- 
informed faith. Our blessed Lord said to the woman 
of Samaria : " God is a Spirit, and they that worship 
Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth "; 
while Paul, when he found at Athens an altar to 
" The Unknown God," remarked to the Athenians : 
" Whom ye ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto 
you." Just as we know God shall we worship Him. 
In the worship of the Church, therefore, the faith of 
the Church is expressed. Devotion uses the language 
of worship, and devotion is nothing better than a 
foolish sentiment if it finds its origin in concep- 
tions of God which are born of the human imagina- 
tion. The divine Word alone can acquaint us with 
the character and purposes of God ; and in that Word 
alone are we able to meet the truths which build us 
up on our most holy faith. Faith thus established 
glows as devotion, burning the purest incense of 
prayer and praise, of gratitude and love in the pres- 
ence of the invisible God. But faith rests upon 
truth, and thus truth underlies worship. There can 
be no pure worship, holy and welcome in the esti- 
mate of Him with whom we have to do, if truth is 
not appreciated. The Italian bandit, with his bloody 
dagger and his bloody plans, will hardly dare to pass 
a wayside shrine without pausing to repeat his "Ave" 



CONCEPTIONS OF GOD. 9 1 

or " Pater Noster." Yet who will say that he, in his 
ignorance and guilt, is an ideal worshipper? He 
draws near with his mouth, perchance, but his heart 
is far away. On the other hand, the Scotch cove- 
nanter, with his old Bible and in his quiet Highland 
home, is able to offer the most devout offering to 
God when he kneels and simply pours out his soul 
in prayer. " Having therefore, brethren, boldness to 
enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new 
and living way, which He hath consecrated for us, 
through the veil, that is to say, His flesh, and having 
an high-priest over the house of God, let us draw 
near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, hav- 
ing our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and 
our bodies washed with pure water." We must "wor- 
ship the Lord in the beauty of holiness." From the 
Hebrews He demanded a lamb " without blemish 
and without spot," and from us He requires an 
equally pure sacrifice. " The sacrifices of God are a 
broken spirit." "A broken and a contrite heart, 
O God, Thou wilt not despise." 

When, therefore, we become acquainted with the 
worship of the Church, we become acquainted, also, 
with the prevalent ideas concerning God. Who is 
God whom we worship ? What is the Divine char- 
acter ? Are His purposes known ? How shall we 
approach Him ? Let us inquire of the splendid 
service which the Romish Church has brought to 



92 CONCEPTIONS OF GOD. 

such perfection. What answer will be given ? Here 
are paintings and images which represent the mother 
of our Lord and many canonized saints. Before 
them, prayer is offered. Here are altars and priests, 
and the sacrifice of the Mass is constantly celebrated. 
Here are confessionals, and the forgiveness of sins is 
authoritatively announced. As we look upon such 
an order of worship, what impression do we gain ? I 
am not of those who turn away with ridicule and dis- 
gust from the worship which has accumulated a great 
deal of error around a precious nucleus of truth. I 
should be ashamed of my Protestantism if it con- 
sisted largely in denunciations of another name. 
There is too much devotion within that ancient 
communion, too much heroism in the ministry of 
self-denial, too much holy living to allow of such 
reflections. Yet I can see the error and rebuke it, 
even when I recognize the truth and commend it. 
Heartily do I join with Robertson* in saying: "I 
pray you, Christian brethren, do not join those fierce 
associations which think only of uprooting error. 
There is a spirit in them which is more of earth than 
heaven ; short-sighted, too, and self-destructive. They 
do not make converts to Christ, but only controver- 
sialists and adherents to a party. They compass sea 
and land. It matters little whether fierce Romanism 



* " Sermons," Vol. II., 269. 



CONCEPTIONS OF GOD. 93 

or fierce Protestantism wins the day; but it does 
matter whether or not in the conflict we lose some 
precious truth as well as the very spirit of Christi- 
anity." What, then, is the mistaken conception of 
God which this worship appears to perpetuate? I 
reply, that it makes too little of the sincerity and suf- 
ficiency of God's purpose to save the world by the 
sacrifice of Jesus Christ. As we read the Bible, we 
are taught that "God so loved the world that He 
gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth 
in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life "; 
that the Son of God was " made in the likeness of 
men "; that " He became obedient unto death, even 
the death of the cross"; that He has "put away sin 
by the sacrifice of Himself "; that " by one offering 
He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified "; 
that " by grace are ye saved, through faith "; that He 
is " a merciful and faithful High-Priest in things per- 
taining to God "; that we may " come boldly unto 
the Throne of Grace "; that " if we confess our sins, 
He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to 
cleanse us from all unrighteousness "; that " there is 
one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ 
Jesus." Thus we become acquainted with God in 
the revelation of the Son. We are satisfied to trust 
Him. To Him we make our confessions of sins, for 
He is always ready to hear and to pardon, and con- 
sequently the confessional is not required ; to His 



94 CONCEPTIONS OF GOD. 

complete sacrifice on Calvary we look by faith, and 
are assured that no repetition of that supreme act 
can ever be required, and consequently we do not 
wish to celebrate the Mass, nor do we believe in a 
human priesthood as an essential order of the Chris- 
tian ministry. Jesus Christ is our Prophet, Priest, 
and King ; to Him we direct our loving and adoring 
interest, and are confident that no intercessor, like 
the Virgin Mary or a saint, is needed to plead on our 
behalf, and consequently we are not careful to kneel 
before pictures or images when we worship. 

It is evident that there are two ideas of God in 
these two orders of worship. God, as we know Him 
in our Bible study, is very near to us, is deeply inter- 
ested in our welfare, is seeking our salvation, has 
made every provision for our religious wants. The 
glory of God appears in the face of Jesus Christ, 
whom we have been taught to admire and to rever- 
ence and to love and to worship. As little children, 
we fold our hands and lisp our simple prayer — the 
"our Father which art in Heaven," and as strong 
men, we bow our heads reverently with an awe- 
inspiring consciousness of the Infinite Majesty of 
God, and still we use the language, " Our Father 
which art in Heaven." We have no altars, because 
Christ, our Saviour, is the living altar ; we have no 
bloody sacrifices, because the sacrifice of Christ is our 
sufficient plea. We call no man priest, because the 



CONCEPTIONS OF GOD. 95 

priesthood was abolished when the Temple veil was 
rent in twain to discover to all worshippers the 
mercy-seat. God invites us ; we respond ; with pen- 
itence and faith we approach Him, believing that He 
will bless us " for Jesus' sake." 

Let us turn now and observe the worship of the 
sanctuary which is often called a " meeting-house." 
Here is a less stately edifice, although taste and 
beauty may find expression here, and comfort and 
convenience may both be known. Puritanism has 
wisely invoked the aid of architecture to relieve it 
from the accusation of barrenness and austerity under 
which it once rested. Truth may be as faithfully ex- 
pressed in worship, when the eye is not offended, and 
the body is not chilled, as ever it has been in dens 
or caves of the earth, when every possible discomfort 
was experienced. Within this sanctuary, now entered 
for inspection, the arrangements for worship are 
simple. There are no pictures nor images before 
which devotion kneels. A congregation assembles 
to unite in prayer and praise to God, to celebrate the 
sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, and 
to pronounce and to hear the inspired Word. A 
chosen leader of these services is a minister or serv- 
ant, not in any special sense a priest. He stands 
behind the Holy Bible, which is his authority and 
defence. Between him and his brethren, as an ar- 
biter, as a bond of union, as a token of respect, ap- 



96 CONCEPTIONS OF GOD. 

pears this sacred volume. Out of it he is to be 
judged ; and out of it they are to be judged also. 
He is only a weak man. If he is faithful in his pres- 
entations of these divine truths, in prayer, in song, 
in the many utterances of his ministry, his message 
is to be received as the truth of God ; if he is un- 
faithful, if his own conceits find place and expression, 
the message from his lips is to be treated as the word 
of man. The one endeavor of this worship seems to 
be to honor God in Christ, to emphasize the redemp- 
tion which has been accomplished for the race, to 
quicken the individual conscience, to develop per- 
sonal religion, to secure the daily and hourly worship 
of holy activity. God is presented with His deep 
concern for all that is human. His presence in life is 
constantly taught. The familiarity of His address is 
announced. His hopes and His benedictions are urged 
for man's acceptance. 

Errors, we may rest assured, will creep in and at- 
tach themselves here as elsewhere. No one of us is 
safe. This order of worship has its dangers, which 
we should not fail to consider. When we are trained 
to think familiarly of God, we may find that we are 
thinking carelessly and irreverently of Him. Even 
the blessed assurance that we are justified by faith 
has led, as in the days of Luther, to frightful excesses 
through the perversions of corrupt men. Religion 
is morality as well as devotion. " Who," asks the 



CONCEPTIONS OF GOD. gy 

Psalmist, " shall ascend into the hill of the Lord ? 
or who shall stand in His holy place?" Then he 
answers his own question by saying, " He that hath 
clean hands and a pure heart," not the clean hands 
alone, for that would be morality without devotion ; 
not the pure heart alone, for that would be mysticism 
without morality. But the clean hands and the pure 
heart, morality and devotion. Our simplicity of 
worship may incline us to be intolerant of others 
who prefer, as they have a right to, much more form. 
The prayers which the eye catches from the printed 
page may be adopted as the heart's sincere expres- 
sion, as truly as the prayers which the ear reports to 
the mind. There is room for large liberty here. God 
has given ; let no man question it. Then there may 
be a veritable idolatry of the Word, a bowing down 
to worship the sacred volume, a carrying the Book 
about as the African carries a fetich, a treatment of 
its ennobling truths which is fatal to any hope of 
discovering their spirit and life. " Search the Scrip- 
tures," our Lord said. The Book is to be valued for 
its contents. Only they properly use it who bring 
forth from its treasures the precious messages of di- 
vine love, and the still more precious exhibition of 
Divine Excellence, which is contained in the life and 
work of Jesus Christ. 

Worship should be studious. Its knowledge of 
God should be increasingly intimate. With this 
5 



gS CONCEPTIONS OF GOD. 

knowledge there should be an adaptation of order or 
method. We do not think of God precisely as our 
fathers did. Our thought has more of Christ in it. 
We dwell more upon the love than upon the stern 
attributes of the divine nature. Our Christianity is 
more catholic and more practical. Canon Freemantle * 
has remarked that "the old Jerusalem was all temple. 
The mediaeval church was all temple. But the ideal 
of the New Jerusalem was no temple, but a God- 
inhabited society The title of its Founder is 

Immanuel, God with us, God in us, God making 
Himself a home in all the relations in which love and 
justice draw man to man, and class to class, and na- 
tion to nation ; a God who is known and realized in 
the tenderness of fatherly and motherly and filial af- 
fection, the rapture of married love, the steadiness of 
friendship, the honesty of trade relations, the loyalty 
of citizenship, the righteousness of political rule, the 
peace which is destined to bind together all mankind. 
.... All worship which does not aim at these is hy- 
pocrisy ; that worship alone is Christian worship 
which aims at their establishment." As then truth 
concerning God breaks in upon and informs the mind, 
worship will adopt new expressions. We do not 
worship just as our fathers did, and our children will 
not worship just as we do. Yet those before us wor- 



*"The Gospel of the Secular Life," p. 67. 



CONCEPTIONS OF GOD. gg 

shipped acceptably, and received the witness of the 
Holy Spirit ; and we believe that God will be pleased 
to accept our worship whenever it is sincerely offered ; 
and we are confident that " from the rising of the 
sun even unto the going down of the same, His name 
shall be great among the Gentiles ; and in every place 
incense shall be offered unto His name and a pure of- 
fering." No stereotyped order of worship has come 
down to us with divine sanction, and yet we know 
that God has given the alphabet with which each de- 
vout heart may form the sentences of prayer and praise. 

3d. The faith which is held concerning God de- 
termines the divine attitude toward the sanctuary. It 
was after Moses had faithfully met the pattern which 
had been given to him in the Mount, that the cloud 
rested upon the Tabernacle ; it was after Solomon 
had provided the furniture, as God had directed, 
that the Temple was covered with the cloud. If 
either of these eminent leaders of worship had diso- 
beyed, if Moses had left out the brazen altar, or if 
Solomon had concluded that the laver was superflu- 
ous ; if Moses had decided that he would not veil 
the Most Holy Place, or if Solomon had ventured to 
bring in a new order of priesthood, God would not 
have met their worship with His approval. They 
both accepted, however, the revelation of Mount 
Sinai as from God, and then they knew that an an- 
swer was theirs. 



100 



CONCEPTIONS OF GOD. 



Unless we, my friends, can reproduce their wisdom 
in our experience, we can not anticipate the blessed 
presence of God in this place. We have no right to 
ask Him to bless us if we are not honestly expressing 
our faith concerning Him, and if we are not as hon- 
estly endeavoring to make that faith intelligent. This 
sanctuary, so costly and so beautiful, is of no interest 
whatever to the Infinitely Pure and Holy One to whose 
service it has been set apart, if it is to be the scene of 
perversions of Christian life, if its walls are to resound 
with perversions of Christian truth, if it is to minister 
to pride, and to worldliness, and to impiety. The 
Apostle is very bold, and says : " Though we, or an 
angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel unto 
you than that which we have preached unto you, let 
him be accursed. As we said before so say I now 
again, if any man preach any other Gospel unto you 
than that ye have received, let him be accursed." 
Paul understood that the divine blessing will never 
rest upon those who disregard the divine Son. It is 
idle to ask for it. Until we honor the Son, our wor- 
ship will not be honored. But when we bring Him 
our penitence and offer Him our faith at the altar of 
His own priceless sacrifice ; when we are cleansed by 
the Holy Spirit in the application of the pure water 
of His holy Word ; when we accept Him as the Bread 
of Life at the Table which announces His enduring 
sufficiency ; when we live and walk continually in the 



CONCEPTIONS OF GOD. 



ICI 



light of the golden candlestick, and present our devo- 
tion upon the altar for the incense of prayer ; when we 
appear before the mercy-seat naming His name, plead- 
ing His merits, rejoicing in His example, obeying His 
commands, then may we expect an answer in love and 
mercy which will prove to each disciple of the Re- 
deemer the witness of the Spirit with our spirits that 
we are the sons of God, and which will awaken such 
an interest in careless souls that they will inquire 
eagerly to learn the way to be saved. 

Our theme carries with it its own exhortation. 
We have enlarged our sanctuary, that in it we may 
meet for worship. God grant that the worship here 
offered by us and by later generations may be so pure 
and acceptable that the prayer of the Hebrew king 
will always be appropriate ! Then as we pray that 
" thine eyes may be open toward this house night and 
day," we shall know that contrition will receive par- 
don, that faith will rejoice in the beatific vision, that 
consecration will be directed and stimulated, that 
hope will be sanctified, that sorrow will be cheered. 
Here the songs of praise and devotion will be heard, 
and the language of prayer will be familiar ; here 
" the truth as it is in Jesus" will be proclaimed, and 
the holy sacraments of the church will be adminis- 
tered ; here the union of hearts will be solemnized as 
a blessing is pronounced upon marriage, and here, 
too, the separation of hearts will be apparent, as the 



102 



CONCEPTIONS OF GOD. 



mourners sit around their dead. Yet in contrition or 
in faith, in consecration or in holy joy, in the begin- 
ning or at the close of life, with promise or with me- 
morial, Jesus Christ, God's Son, our Saviour, will ever 
meet us, and His presence will be our best evidence 
that God responds in love. 



VI. 



THE EFFICIENCY OF REFINEMENT* 

" That our sons may be as plants, grown up in 
their youth ; that our daughters may be as 
corner-stones, polished after the similitude of 
a palace ." — Psalm cxliv. 12. 

The prayer of the Psalmist recognizes the efficiency 
of refinement. For he asks that the sons of the 
nation may be like plants, which are productive and 
beautiful, even in their youth, and that the daughters 
of the land may resemble sculptured pillars, which 
strengthen and adorn the interior of a palace. In the 
public life of the Hebrews, he sees the place of the 
young men who have been carefully educated, and in 
their domestic and social life, he believes that the 
young women, who are intelligent, may exert a power- 
ful influence. Thus he associates activity and useful- 
ness with refinement ; and his prayer expresses the 
conviction that refinement is desirable, inasmuch as it 
can serve. 

The thought which is thus announced is endorsed 



* Preached before the graduating class of the Packer Col- 
legiate Institute, Brooklyn, N. Y., June 19, 1881. 

(103) 



104 THE EFFICIENCY OF REFINEMENT. 



by Christ, and illustrated by His perfect life. His 
words lead to refinement ; and His life, so pure and 
beautiful, was employed in helpful, self-sacrificing 
work. " He went about doing good." " He came 
not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to 
give His life a ransom for many." 

Instructed by the Master, the disciples of Christ 
have used their refinement to benefit the world. The 
world has been enriched by them. Literature, science, 
and art have attended their efforts. The standard of 
excellence which governs them is so high that a 
higher can not be conceived. They are laboring that 
we all may " come in the unity of the faith, and of 
the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect 
man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness 
of Christ." For it is the belief of Christians, that the 
perfect man in Christ is " the best material and the 
best instrument for any great undertaking, or for any 
worthy enterprise that is not great, whether you would 
build a character, a home, a literature, a nation." 

Thus Christianity produces a refinement which is 
efficient ; and, as a consequence, the progress of the 
centuries can never outstrip Christianity. For while 
progress means refinement, Christianity means re- 
finement also ; and while progress demands a refine- 
ment which is useful, Christian refinement appreci- 
ates its work and is ready to accomplish it. Recent- 
ly it has been said that "the new French socialism 



THE EFFICIENCY OF REFINEMENT. 105 

waves its adieu to Christianity as a social failure, on 
the ground that alms-giving and resignation are its 
last words." But " we have not so learned Christ." 
Christianity, as we have been taught, looks into the 
future as the soldier plans his campaign ; stands wait- 
ing in the present, as the laborer waits for the oppor- 
tunity of service, with loins girded, with arms bared, 
with shovel and with axe. 

To the graduating class of the Packer Institute, 
the subject which is thus presented for consideration 
is of practical importance. Your feet are now upon 
the threshold. You are about to leave the quiet of 
the school-room for the activity of the busy, eager 
world. For many years you have enjoyed the ad- 
vantages of education in one of the leading Christian 
Institutions of our land. Christian refinement, as 
possessed by your instructors, has done its utmost to 
refine you. You represent the ripest intelligence of 
the age. And now the question of your efficiency 
must come home to you with intense significance. 
You are young ladies of refinement. But of what 
use is this refinement? What can you add to the 
forces which are ministering unto human beings? 
Have you a noble purpose? Has your refinement 
been sanctified by a true consecration ? Bear with 
me while I endeavor to open this subject and to pre- 
sent a few of its applications. 

The aim of education is to produce refinement 

5* 



106 THE EFFICIENCY OF REFINEMENT. 



— refinement is the legitimate result of education. 
There are, of course, many degrees and varieties 
of refinement, and yet each one of these degrees, 
each one of these varieties, is associated with educa- 
tion. The savage teaches his son to handle the bow, 
to ride the horse, to build the wigwam, to follow the 
trail, and in so doing he refines his natural powers so 
that he is enabled to triumph over the elements of 
nature, to subdue wild beasts, and to contend with 
hostile tribes. Travellers often wonder at the extent 
of this refinement. The sight is rendered marvellous- 
ly keen, the touch becomes as gentle as an infant's 
breath, and the hearing is so acute that the faintest 
whisper is detected. Education among savages seeks 
this sort of refinement. From our vantage-ground 
we may despise it ; yet when a comparison is insti- 
tuted, it will be found that a brave or a chieftain has 
been educated up to the position which he holds in 
view of his endurance, his courage, and his skill. 

The farmer's boy who has learned to run a straight 
furrow, to swing the scythe skilfully, to plant trees, 
to cultivate the fields, has secured a measure of re- 
finement, which elevates him above his associates. 
In his own department of life he has become an in- 
telligent man. His opinions are recognized ; his in- 
fluence is felt. 

The apprentice who is learning one of the mechani- 
cal trades is seeking refinement. When he begins to 



THE EFFICIENCY OF REFINEMENT. 107 

work with tools he is very clumsy and awkward. A 
great deal of excellent material is injured by him. 
He can hardly drive a nail, or saw through a plank. 
After a time, however, his hand becomes steady, and 
he is able to undertake the finest work. 

In the school-room, where books are used, refine- 
ment is the aim of instruction. We enter the school- 
room in our infancy, hardly knowing who or what we 
are ; we leave it in our maturity with knowledge of 
ourselves, and of what we can do. 

You remember how forcibly this idea is expressed 
by Mr. Tennyson : 

" The baby new to earth and sky, 

What time his tender palm is prest 
Against the circle of the breast, 
Has never thought that ' this is L' 

" But as he grows he gathers much, 
And learns the use of ' I ' and ' me,' 
And finds ' I am not what I see, 
And other than the things I touch.' 

" So rounds he to a separate mind, 

From whence clear memory may begin, 
As thro' the frame that binds him in 
His isolation grows defined." 

Thus every child is an experimental philosopher, 
and the refining process waits upon the experiments. 

But the great world is, after all, nothing but a large 
school-room, and men and women all their lives are 
only grown-up scholars. Education goes on, and 



108 THE EFFICIENCY OF REFINEMENT. 



education means refinement. An upward pressure is 
constantly felt ; each generation makes an advance ; 
new thoughts are presented ; an interest in literature 
is awakened as the common wants of life are met ; 
spirituality asserts itself ; art summons the students 
who are to become renowned ; science welcomes re- 
cruits from the quarry, the forge, the sheepfold, and the 
plough ; the peasant's cottage is on the road which 
passes by the mansion of affluence or the dwelling- 
place of power; the plain, unlettered parent stands be- 
side the learned and distinguished son as he becomes 
the chief ruler of a republic ; the few articles of humble 
poverty are in contrast with the unnumbered luxuries of 
great wealth ; appreciation increases ; the range of life 
broadens ; libraries are a necessity ; a picture discov- 
ers its noble thought ; a statue proclaims a principle. 
These wonderful advances are made with astonishing 
rapidity. Nations are really born in a day. It is 
almost impossible to grasp the significance, or to re- 
alize the meaning, of the educational tendencies which 
are now so influential. In every direction the refine- 
ment of life is going on. A great city, with its dwell- 
ings, its museums, its churches, its galleries, its parks, 
its libraries, its lyceums, is an expression of modern 
refinement. And this refinement, such as it is, is the 
impulse of the age. " Culture " has become the watch- 
word of the hour. Much that is superficial, and much 
that is dangerous, take shelter under cover of this 



THE EFFICIENCY OF REFINEMENT. 109 

fair-sounding word. We are rushing on, gaining every 
year in refinement, pressing the necessity of education 
at every point, calling to our aid the master spirits of 
every land, confirming ourselves in the conviction 
that man's chief end is refinement, and that " culture " 
is the present Christ. Are we right ? Is there need 
of a danger-signal ? Can we discover any signs of a 
useless, vain refinement ? What does history teach ? 
What is the wisdom of God's Word? 

A refinement which is to be efficient must pos- 
sess certain moral qualities. One of the most thought- 
ful of our historians has remarked : " The difficulty of 
conduct does not lie in knowing what it is right to 
do, but in doing it when known. Intellectual culture 
does not touch the conscience. It provides no mo- 
tives to overcome the weakness of the will, and with 
wider knowledge, it brings also new temptations." 
And he adds these significant words: "Tendencies 
now in operation may a few generations hence land 
modern society in similar conclusions, unless other 
convictions arise meanwhile and get the mastery of 
them." 

It should not be forgotten when the opening 
chapters of Paul's epistle to the Romans are read, 
that the Apostle was writing to a people who had 
reached "the blossoming period of the old civilization, 
when the intellect was strained to the highest point 
which it could reach ; and on the great subjects of 



1 10 THE EFFICIENCY OF REFINEMENT 



human interest, on morals, on politics, on poetry, on 
art, even on religion itself, men thought as we think, 
doubted where we doubt, argued as we argue, aspired 
and struggled after the same objects." * To the Rome 
of the Caesars, Paul sent the letter which exposes the 
real character of Roman refinement. That refinement 
was godless ; and as a consequence it was destitute of 
the moral stamina which godliness alone can furnish. 
" When they knew God they glorified Him not as 
God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their 
imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened ; 
professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 
and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into 
an image made like to corruptible man and to birds, 
and four-footed beasts, and creeping things." The 
sad history is very familiar ; we know how inefficient 
and worthless Roman refinement became ; we remem- 
ber how the high offices of the State were bought and 
sold ; and the profligacy of Nero, and the brutality of 
Caligula, can never be forgotten. Luxurious living 
prepared the way for effeminacy, and effeminacy was 
the drunken seamanship which drove the Empire 
upon the rocks. " The Romans ceased to believe," 
says Mr. Froude, " and in losing their faith, they be- 
came as steel becomes when it is demagnetized ; the 
spiritual quality was gone out of them, and the high 



*" Caesar," by J. A. Froude. 



THE EFFICIENCY OF REFINEMENT \ \ i 



society of Rome itself became a society of power- 
ful animals with an enormous appetite for pleasure. 
Wealth poured in more and more, and luxury grew 

more unbounded Even the most cultivated 

patricians were coarse alike in their habits and amuse- 
ments. They cared for art as dilettanti, but no schools, 
either of sculpture or painting, were formed among 
themselves. They decorated their porticos and their 
saloons with the plunder of the East. The stage was 
never more than an artificial taste with them. Their 
delight was the delight of Barbarians, in spectacles, 
in athletic exercises, in horse races and in chariot 
races, in the combats of wild animals in the circus, 
combats of men with beasts on choice occasions, 
and, as a rare excitement, in fights between men and 
men, when select slaves, trained as gladiators, were 
matched in pairs to kill each other." * And this was 
the refinement of Rome, then the proud mistress of 
the world ! Of Rome, then attentive to the eloquence 
of a Cicero ! Of Rome, then acquainted with the 
poetry of a Virgil and a Horace ! Of Rome, then 
enthusiastic over the victories of a Pompey and a 
Caesar ! Of Rome, then the resort of scholars, philos- 
ophers, and artists ! As we look upon that life, even 
from this distant land and time, we are constrained 
to adopt the language of the Hebrew Prophet, and 



* " Csesar," by J. A. Froude. 



112 



THE EFFICIENCY OF REFINEMENT. 



to say : " The whole head is sick and the whole heart 
faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the 
head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds and 
bruises and putrifying sores. They have not been 
closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with oint- 
ment." 

And what was true of Rome was true also of 
Greece, of Nineveh, of Babylon, of Egypt. In each 
of these civilizations there was a period of progress. 
Then a halt was called ; all progress was arrested ; a 
decline commenced ; ruin was witnessed. The refine- 
ment was inefficient, and so it helped on the destruc- 
tion. Roman life simply repeated the experiences 
which these other nations had known. Education 
brought the ancients up to a certain position, but 
their education could not hold them there. Some- 
thing was lacking. Education failed to develop moral 
qualities. Yet Christian England has existed, and 
has flourished, for many centuries, and the evidences 
of her decay are not apparent while she is loyal to 
the lessons of her history. 

Do we appreciate the importance of these moral 
qualities ? Or are we anxious to secure an external 
refinement at any cost without regard to the real 
quality thereof ? Alas ! my friends, I fear that such 
is the ca:e. Too little attention is paid to the grand 
moral qualities which make the highest refinement 
efficient. Too seldom do we emphasize the necessity 



THE EFFICIENC Y OF REFINEMENT. \ \ 3 

of God's presence in our education, of God's Word in 
our plans of instruction. But God alone can furnish 
those sturdy, moral qualities which refinement needs ; 
and His Word is a Book which contains the precepts 
whose guidance secures efficiency. At the Wyclif 
celebration, the last winter, a prominent lawyer closed 
his address with the familiar quotation from Burke, 
" Education is the cheap defence of nations," and 
with these words of his own : " He would have added, 
had his theme permitted, Bible education is the only 
secure basis for freedom, civilization, and progress." 

The moral qualities which give efficiency to refine- 
ment are associated with a consciousness of the evils of 
sin, a sense of dependence upon God, a conviction of the 
nobility of service. 

It seems, perhaps, a strange thing to say, that man 
must be treated as a sinner if his refinement is to be 
permanent and useful. I am aware that the fact of 
sin is often disregarded ; yet the fact remains, and its 
influence conditions human life. The denial of a fact 
does not destroy the fact. You may hear the leper's 
denial of the taint that is in the blood of his fair- 
faced child ; you may hear the workman's denial of 
the danger that is associated with the handling of 
nitro-glycerine ; you may hear the profligate's denial 
of the wickedness that debases his life. Denial never 
destroys a fact. Facts are stubborn things. And 
there is no fact which is more apparent than this ter- 



1 14 THE EFFICIENCY OF REFINEMENT. 

rible fact of sin. Man is not innocent. Innocence 
never would have written the history of the world, 
as events have written it, with a pen of iron and with 
ink of blood. Sin meets us everywhere — in the house- 
hold, on the exchange, in the senate chamber, on the 
farm, in the camp, on the battle-field. 

And sin must be considered, if the interests of 
humanity are to be considered. The problem of edu- 
cation has this disturbing element. Many of the an- 
cients realized this. Socrates appreciated it. Seneca 
understood it. The confusion and misery of life 
were sad facts to them. They tried to discover some 
method of redemption, by means of which prosperity 
and happiness might be secured. But they failed. 
For redemption can only be provided by God. In 
the gift of His Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ, God 
has made such provision. Thus sin may be pardoned ; 
a holy life is a possibility ; friendship with God be- 
comes the joy of a faithful heart. 

But this relation introduces a sincere and affection- 
ate dependence. Responsibility to an infinite Being 
is appreciated. " Thou, God, seest me," becomes a 
restraint and an encouragement, — a restraint when 
temptation is near ; an encouragement when hope is 
feeble. The consciousness is formed that life and its 
service may be given to God. Spirituality is de- 
veloped by prayer, and spirituality is the salt of re- 
finement. 



THE EFFICIENCY OF REFINEMENT. \ \ 5 

Then the nobility of service is recognized. Noth- 
ing is too good for service. The grandest use of life 
is service. " Beautiful," says Jean Paul, in a brilliant 
passage, " beautiful is the eagle, as he soars above 
the clouds and bathes himself in the clear sunlight ! 
But how much more beautiful when he visits his 
eaglets in the clefts of the rocks, bearing to them 
their daily food ! " Can we know this in practical 
life? And how? Is it an instinct ? Does education 
always teach it ? Shall we find that it is inseparably 
connected with refinement? Look around you for 
your answers to questions such as these ! How many 
of the men and women who are cultured in the best 
culture of our schools, are doing anything to benefit 
the world? How often is it true that refinement is 
so inefficient that it becomes almost contemptible ! 
Life is wasted in having a good time. Days and 
weeks and months are passed in receiving pleasure, 
not in giving help. The pound is kept in a napkin. 
Occasionally it is brought out for inspection by a few 
admiring friends. But service, real service, is never 
suggested. Club life for men, parlor life for women, 
are the ruin of our youth. There seems to be a sad 
lack of ambition where there is this willingness to 
live without a purpose, and to die without accom- 
plishing anything. 

Some time ago, as I learn from my reading,* the 

* "Duty," by Samuel Smiles. 



1 1 6 THE EFFICIENCY OF REFINEMENT. 



Bishop of Manchester received a letter from a young 
lady, who excused herself from Christian work on the 
plea that she had no time. In the letter, the follow 
ing account of her daily life was given : " We break- 
fast at ten. Breakfast occupies the best part of an 
hour, during which we read our letters, and pick up 
society news in the papers. After that we have to 
go and answer our letters, and my mother expects 
me to write her notes of invitation, or to reply to 
such. Then I have to go into the conservatory and 
feed the canaries and parrots, and cut off the faded 
flowers and the dead leaves from the plants. Then 
it is time to dress for lunch, and at two o'clock we 
lunch. At three my mother likes me to go with her 
when she makes her calls, and we then come home 
to a five o'clock tea, when some friends drop in. 
After that we get ready to take our drive in the park, 
and then we go home to dinner ; and after dinner we 
go to the theatre or opera, and then, when we get 
home, I am so dreadfully tired that I do not know 
what to do." And is that a refined woman's life in 
England ? Is it possible that a woman of refinement, 
there or here, is willing to go through life, as the bird 
cleaves the air, with no mark whatever left behind ? 
If so, our refinement is doomed, for such inefficiency 
is only the repetition of Roman negligence and in- 
temperance, whose destruction came so rapidly. 
What refinement needs is an authoritative word 



THE EFFICIENCY OF REFINEMENT. 1 1 7 

and a perfect life ; a word which announces the no- 
bility of service, and a life which shall go about upon 
errands of mercy. Refinement must understand that 
God can use the intelligence of His creatures, and that 
the most refined life ever known was freely given for 
the salvation of the world. 

I have spoken of a woman's life in England, and 
have endeavored to point out the error of a frivolous 
employment of sacred opportunities. Let me bring 
you now another phase of life, so much more com- 
mendable. Kinglake, in his last volume upon the 
Crimean war, refers with intense admiration to " the 
priceless reinforcement of brain power that was 
brought to the rescue by woman " during the winter 
of 1854. Among the women who went to the hos- 
pitals of the Bosphorus was Mary Stanley, the daugh- 
ter of the late Bishop of Norwich, and the sister of 
the present Dean of Westminster. She had the ad- 
vantages of high social rank, of education in the best 
schools, and of foreign travel. Yet her refinement 
was singularly efficient. " Having long served as the 
very right hand of her father in bringing to bear his 
larger measures for the good of the poor, she soon 
disclosed great capacity for both organizing and trans- 
acting executive work, whilst also, in her own gentle 
way, she knew how to rule." That beautiful life, so 
rich in its capabilities, was given to the soldiers of 
the British army ; and not one of its many graces was 
useless, because the refinement was genuine. 



1 1 8 THE EFFICIENC Y OF REFINEMENT. 

Doubtless many of you have read the exquisite de* 
lineation of home life which the Archbishop of Can- 
terbury penned, when he sketched the life of Catha- 
rine Tait.* There is another illustration of Ihe 
possibility of refinement and efficiency going hand 
in hand, without departing in the least from the 
modest order of a woman's round of duties. Mrs. 
Tait made her Christian influence felt in every circle 
which she entered. In her own home she was a true 
wife and a devoted mother, and in the Church of God 
she was not only a sincere worshipper, but also an 
earnest worker. 

Perhaps, too, you may have formed something of 
an acquaintance with Frances Ridley Havergal,f 
another devoted woman. Her gifts — and they were 
numerous — were consecrated to the service of her 
King. She had in Christian service the spirit of 
mediaeval chivalry. Intense loyalty ruled her. Her 
musical ability, " and she was able to play through 
Handel, much of Beethoven and Mendelssohn with- 
out any notes," was wholly dedicated to Christ. 

" Take my lips, and let me sing, 
Always, only, for my King," 

was her prayer. Every one loved her. Her very 
presence was a benediction. 

* Catharine and Craufurd Tait. 

t " Memorials of Frances Ridley Havergal." 



THE EFFICIENCY OF REFINEMENT. \ 19 

Now you may not be called, as these women were, 
to just such work as they performed ; but there is 
other work, and plenty of it, and to that work you 
are surely called. God has a place for each one of 
you. These voices, which have been trained to such 
perfection ; these fingers, which can play skilfully 
upon stringed instruments ; these lips, which can 
speak in many languages ; these intellects, which are 
so stored with knowledge — these are for service. Are 
they not ? Answer then, each one, the call divine, 
" Here am I, send me ! " 

The moral qualities which are essential to refine- 
ment are provided by Christ in order that He may 
control education. He came as a light into this dark 
world. Upon the problems of sin and salvation He 
shed the light of Heaven. No wisdom can compare 
with His. He looked fairly at sin, and described it 
as it really is. He traced its history. He discovered 
its origin. He announced its inevitable end. We 
may apologize for sin, but Christ never did. We may 
make light of sin, but Christ knew too much to do 
so. Sin, as He understood it, is exceeding sinful. 
There is a corruption about it which only divine 
power can cleanse. In its nature it is deadly. Unless 
relief is afforded, the sinner must die. 

And relief is afforded by the grace of God in Jesus 
Christ. He has secured redemption. He is the 
mediator. Altars are no longer necessary, and priests 



120 



THE EFFICIENCY OF REFINEMENT. 



may be dismissed, and sacrifices have ceased to have 
any meaning ; for Christ Jesus is forever altar, priest, 
and sacrifice. 

This great fact is the basis of Christian morality. 
Education has always accompanied this preaching of 
the Gospel. Martin Luther heralded modern educa- 
tion when he emphasized the doctrine of justification 
by faith. For that doctrine places a high estimate 
upon the individual, as it promises acceptance by God 
for the sake of Christ the Son. It has unchained and 
opened the Bible, and offered it, thus free and open, 
to the multitude ; and a free Bible and a free school 
will always be found in the same place. 

Besides, through Christ God is known. He is the 
revelation of God. In Him the glory of God appears. 
And what a strangely wonderful glory that is ! How 
unlike the conceptions of men ! How sublime ! How 
condescending ! " God is a Spirit, and they that 
worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in 
truth." No idol form can represent Him. No myth- 
ological conceit can portray His excellence. He is 
not like Jupiter, nor does He resemble Minerva. But 
purity and love are His in absolute perfection, for He 
is as Jesus was while here upon the earth. We do 
not fear Him, and yet we do Him homage. We do 
not shrink from Him because He calls us to Himself. 
He is our dependence. We love to do as He directs 
us to do. His approval is our comfort ; His friend- 



THE EFFICIENCY OF REFINEMENT. 121 



ship is our joy. When we are conscious of any need, 
we turn to Him in prayer ; when we are blessed with 
any blessing, we express to Him our thanks. Thus 
He is our spirituality, for spirituality never fails to 
appear when one is walking with his God. 

Then, too, Christ speaks of service, and also illus- 
trates service. He tells us what to do, and why we 
should do it. " The servant is not greater than his 
Lord ; neither He that is sent greater than He that 
sent Him." If the " only begotten Son, who is in 
the bosom of the Father," was ready to give Himself, 
what is my life that I should withhold it ? If the 
well Beloved, who was " the brightness of the Father's 
glory and the express image of His person," was will- 
ing to touch the leper's sore, to become the friend 
of publicans and sinners, to endure reproach, to be 
covered with the dust of an unbelieving city, to be 
crowned with a crown of thorns, to be scourged by 
common soldiers, then who am I, what is my refine- 
ment, that I should hesitate to give myself, that I 
should shrink from offering the little refinement that 
I possess, to my fellow-men? Thus "the love of 
Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge, that if 
one died for all, then were all dead, and that He died 
for all, that they which live should not henceforth 
live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for 
them, and rose again." Now the springs of Chris- 
tian activity are touched. " For Jesus' sake " is the 
6 



122 THE EFFICIENCY OF REFINEMENT. 



motive which thrills many a heart. " What wilt Thou 
have me to do ? " is the question which is heard on 
every hand. " Where is there work for the Master?" 
is the inquiry of all disciples. 

I can discover no limitation to Christian refinement. 
Whatever is a proper study for man is a proper study 
for a Christian man. Art in its purity ; science in its 
profound investigations ; literature in its companion- 
ship with many noble minds ; commerce in its ex- 
changes ; society in its friendly intercourse — these ad- 
vantages are as much to the Christian as to any one 
else. The hand of Christ rests upon all truth and 
beauty and power. They are His. He claims them. 
They are to be employed in the ministry which He 
directs. 

The applications of this subject, my friends, are 
evident. If I read the signs of the times aright, this 
eagerness for refinement has taken strong hold upon 
us. We appreciate the importance of education. We 
are proud of our advantages. But are we not in dan- 
ger of forgetting that education needs the moral con- 
trol which Christ can give ? Do we not sometimes 
leave out the word Christian when we speak of edu- 
cation? If we do, we err. Our education finds its 
peril right here. The conditions of life are such, with 
our rapid increase of wealth and our magnificent re- 
sources, that a materialistic refinement can easily be 
developed. Then " farewell " to the republic and its 



THE EFFICIENCY OF REFINEMENT. 123 

civilization. The old story will be written out once 
more. Education led to refinement, and refinement 
led to effeminacy, and effeminacy led to sensuality, 
and sensuality is death. It may not come in this 
generation — a catastrophe so melancholy — probably 
it will not. But that it will come, I am persuaded, if 
Christ is refused that place in our refinement which 
is the guarantee of efficiency. 

Therefore, bring Him into your life. Settle the 
question of your relation to God. Accept the justifi- 
cation which is offered you. Become a new creature 
in Christ Jesus. Live with the understanding that 
God's eye is upon you. Ask Him to guide you every 
day and every hour. " Seek those things which are 
above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of 
God." Learn the lesson of self-sacrifice. Know 
that you can not be too wise, too gentle, too pure, 
too refined for God's work. Look about you, and 
see what you can do. Hear the cries of sorrow which 
come up from many hearts. No place for you, a 
Christian woman ! No work for you, with your re- 
finement ! Condemned to uselessness, because you 
are without a vocation ! Ah ! my friends, ten thou- 
sand of the brightest minds are wanted, at this very 
hour, to consider, to solve, and to explain the ques- 
tions which are pressing us ! What of these class dis- 
tinctions? What of the rewards of labor? What of 
woman's sphere? What of the administration of 



124 THE EFFICIENCY OF REFINEMENT. 

charity? What of the relief of suffering? What of 
the methods of evangelization ? Some one must tell 
us, and common, unrefined minds can not. 

Our sons should be like well-grown plants, and our 
daughters like sculptured pillars. Man's work is not 
woman's work, and woman's work is not man's work ; 
but both are Christ's. Some things can be better 
done by men than by women, and some things can be 
better done by women than by men. There is wis- 
dom in a division of labor. It may not be best for a 
woman to cast a vote at the polls. Many excellent 
women shrink from such publicity. But it is best 
that woman's influence should have much to do 
in making that vote, by determining its character. 
When war was devastating our land, women did not 
march in the ranks of the regiments, nor did they 
handle the musket upon the battle-field ; yet what an 
element of strength, of high courage, of holy patriot- 
ism was given to the war by the devotion of many 
women ! Let us believe this. We must make our 
refinement Christlike in order that it may be efficient. 

Of the youth of Great Britain, Mr. Ruskin was 
speaking, when he said : " We have to turn their 
courage from the toils of war to the toils of mercy ; 
and their intellect from the dispute of words to dis- 
cernment of things ; and their knighthood from the 
errantry of adventure to the state and fidelity of a 
kingly power. And then, indeed, shall abide for 



THE EFFICIENCY OF REFINEMENT. 125 

them, and for us, an incorruptible felicity, and an 
infallible religion ; shall abide for us faith no more to 
be assailed by temptation, no more to be defended 
by wrath and by fear ; shall abide with us hope no 
more to be quenched by the years that overwhelm, 
or made ashamed by the shadows that betray ; shall 
abide for us, and with us, the greatest of these, the 
abiding will, the abiding name of the Father, for the 
greatest of these is charity." * 

True of the youth of Great Britain, these words 
are also true of the youth of America. God help 
you, my friends, to carry your refinement into many 
homes, into many churches, into many towns and 
cities, as the efficiency of true Christian womanhood ! 



The Mystery of Life," by John Ruskin. 



VII. 



THE QUESTION OF MORDECAI. 

" And who knoweth whether thou art come to the 
kingdom for such a time as this?" — Esth, 
iv. 14. 

WITH this question, Mordecai endeavors to break 
up the indecision of Esther. The fair young queen 
is in great distress. Hainan's conspiracy has ripened. 
From the palace a decree has gone forth which means 
the extermination of the Jews. Prompt action is a 
necessity. Esther alone can hope to influence the 
king. Mordecai is her counsellor. She has sent one 
of her attendants to ask his advice, and has just 
returned her objections to his plan. For he has 
urged her to make a direct appeal to the king, by 
presenting herself at the door of the audience-cham- 
ber. Such a step can only be taken at the peril of 
her life. For if she is not then made welcome, she 
must be put to death. 

While Esther is hesitating, Mordecai sends her 

this question, which acts as a spur to her courage. 

It is an appeal to the best elements of her truly 

heroic nature. Duty is made prominent by it. A 
(126) 



THE QUESTION OF MO RD EC AT. 127 

signal opportunity of service is presented. The divine 
purpose of her life is delicately suggested. The ques- 
tion covers Mordecai's belief. He evidently cherishes 
the conviction that Esther has been selected by God 
to secure the deliverance of his countrymen. He can 
not believe that the wickedness of Haman is to 
triumph over the promises which have written much 
of the unaccomplished history of the Jews. He is a 
man of large faith. The destiny of the chosen people 
is in God's hands. From some quarter, help will 
surely come. But is not Esther to bring it ? Is 
she not " the anointed of the Lord " for this emer- 
gency ? He believes that she is ; and he wishes 
her to go forward boldly that she may discover her 
proper relation to God's work. 

The question accomplishes its purpose. Esther 
dismisses her fears. A noble resolution is formed. 
After a brief season of prayer, in which all the Jews 
of Shushan unite, the queen makes her way into the 
royal presence. Her request is heard. A new decree 
is issued. The Jews in the provinces are encouraged. 
The day which had been appointed for their exter- 
mination witnesses their triumph. No enemy can 
withstand them. Haman and his sons are destroyed ; 
while Mordecai becomes the favorite of the king. 

As we accompany Hatach, the chamberlain, who 
is bearing Mordecai's question to Esther, we can 
hardly fail to realize that this is Mordecai's recog- 



128 THE QUESTION OF MORDECAI. 



nition of the providential significance of Esther's life. 
With what skill does that great man put the ques- 
tion ! He does not use God's name — indeed the 
name of God is not used in the Book of Esther — and 
yet his thought is all of God. He is a splendid ex- 
ample of a God-fearing man, whose reverential esti- 
mate of the divine interest and care is the deep, 
strong current of the soul. The Gulf Stream does 
not babble like the shallow brook of the pasture-field. 
It is silent as it sweeps by the shores of great con- 
tinents, imparting life and fertility by its warmth. 
There is an easy familiarity in the use of God's name, 
which passes for pure religion, v/hile it is not to be 
mentioned with the speech whose every utterance is 
an expression of dependence upon a Higher Power. 
"Not every one," remarks Jesus, "that saith unto 
me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of 
Heaven ; but he that doeth the will of my Father 
which is in Heaven." We need to cultivate this deep 
sense of God's presence ; and, in so doing, to re- 
member that even the common lives, the uneventful 
lives, are providential. It is easy to form the habit 
of saying, " Lord, Lord "; but it is not so easy to 
bring God into direct contact with every thought and 
every emotion. Yet this is His true place. He made 
us for Himself. He wishes that each one of us should 
be the habitation of God through the Spirit. 

For this reason, an especial value may be found 



THE QUESTION OF MORDECAL 129 

in the Book of Esther. It has always had a place in 
the sacred canon. The Bible would be incomplete 
without it. Its interesting records span a gulf which 
we could not afford to leave without a bridge. " It 
is necessary," says Dean Stanley, "that in the rest 
of the sacred volume the name of God should con- 
stantly be brought before us to show that He is all 
in all to our moral perfection. But it is expedient 
for us no less that there should be one Book which 
omits it altogether to prevent us from attaching to 
the mere name a reverence which belongs only to the 
reality. In the mind of the sacred writer, the mere 
accidents, as they might seem, of the quarrel of 
Ahasuerus, the sleepless night, the delay of the lot 
worked out the Divine will as completely as the 
parting of the Red Sea, or the thunders of Sinai. 
The story of Esther is not only a material for the 
noblest and grandest of meditations, but a token 
that in the daily events, the unforeseen chances of 
life, in little unnumbered acts, in the fall of a sparrow, 
in the earth bringing forth fruit of herself, God is 
present. The name of God is not there, but the 
work of God is."* We read this ancient history in 
the light of related events, which bring out into 
clear prominence the operative causes ; and then we 
forget that present events, with which we have to do, 



* "Jewish Church," Vol. III., p. 201. 
6* 



130 THE QUESTION OF MORDECAI. 

must also be operative. The good friends who 
watched over the infant life of Esther could not 
have forecast her wonderful career. She was the 
child of the exile, born in Babylon, and very soon 
left to the protection of her cousin Mordecai. He 
received her to his home as a daughter, and educated 
her with care. From his position in the palace, 
Mordecai became acquainted with the king's purpose 
to select a new wife in the place of the rejected 
Vashti ; and he was also able to present Esther to 
the king, who accepted her as his queen. Then it 
came to pass that Mordecai, through Esther, gave in- 
formation of a conspiracy which was directed against 
Ahasuerus himself. Afterward Haman gained un- 
usual influence, and rose rapidly in the royal favor 
until he had surpassed all the princes of the realm. 
The one object of his hatred was Mordecai, who 
refused to do him homage. To destroy Mordecai, 
this wretched man undertook the destruction of all 
the Jews. The hands upon the dial of providence 
had reached the appointed hour. The significance of 
the life of a simple Jewish girl is about to be dis- 
covered. With high courage Esther ventures into 
the inner court, where all persons are required to fall 
on their faces and to cover their hands in the folds of 
their sleeves, and where executioners with axes stand 
ready to behead any intruder. Her first request is 
heard. A sleepless night brings the attention of 



THE QUESTION OF MORDECAL i 3I 

Ahasuerus to the records, which mention the im- 
portant service of Mordecai. At her banquet, Esther 
acquaints the king with the plans of Haman ; and 
then she receives the assurance of deliverance, which 
the king's decree quickly announces to all the prov- 
inces. 

Now all this history is providential ; not the con- 
clusion alone, because the conclusion is dependent 
upon the beginning, but the entire history. From 
first to last there is a steady unfolding of the purpose 
of God. Yet the purpose is not evident until the un- 
folding is complete. We can not discover it in the 
cradle of Esther, nor is it plain when she is left an or- 
phan ; we do not understand it when she enters the 
palace, nor even when she starts out upon her import- 
ant mission. We must wait. The entire life must be 
before us. Then its significance is clear. 

I have not learned that there is any standard water- 
mark of Providence, any gauge which must measure 
the stature of a life before it can become providential, 
any distinct limit which must be reached in order to 
secure God's presence. We may think that our lives 
are not providential because they are commonplace ; 
and yet what right have we to think so ? Has the 
commonplace nothing to do with Providence? Is 
the present time — so uneventful — a time to be disre- 
garded? Is the present opportunity — so trivial, ap- 
parently — an opportunity to be neglected? It may 



132 THE QUESTION OF MORDECAL 

be, forsooth, like the cradle days of Esther. Who 
knows? Who can tell what great events may hang 
upon a kind word to a poor boy, upon the routine 
fidelity of a clerk, upon the turning to the right hand 
or to the left? You may stop any mature person 
with a question as to the providential significance of 
an ordinary action, and you may receive an indiffer- 
ent reply ; but you can hardly look for an indifferent 
reply if your question covers a number of years and 
the actions of a lifetime. Yet the many years and 
the many actions are but multiples of one. " Thou 
shalt know hereafter." God is not indifferent to the 
least any more than He is to the greatest. The star- 
dust of the firmament has its place just as the great 
planets do. " He telleth the number of the stars ; 
he calleth them all by their names." But then He 
also " healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up 
their wounds." Nothing can escape God's notice. 
No interest is outside of His domain. We can not 
tell. Our judgment is fallible. Our trivial things are 
often God's great things. The eyes of the world 
were once fixed upon Rome where Augustus held his 
splendid court, while the eye of God was observant 
of a stable in Bethlehem, where a peasant and his 
wife were watching beside a little homeless babe. 
We can not assay passing events so as to stamp them 
at their true value. We must wait. To do with our 
might whatsoever our hands find to do, is the true 



THE QUESTION OF MORDECAL 133 

governing purpose, and to bring God consciously into 
all activity so that we may serve Him 

" In the trivial round, the common task " 

is the happy discovery of life's best secret. We shall be 
called to higher service if we approve ourselves in the 
lower. The end is not yet. There are men and 
women — not a few — who will go up to God in Heaven 
from the humility of earth's menial occupations to 
undertake the work of saints around the throne. 
There is another side to the curtain. Within the 
veil the providences of the present will open grandly 
to exhibit their meaning. Let us then, dear friends, 
be hopeful. Not a sparrow falls to the ground with- 
out our Father. The day is advancing ; our toil will 
soon come to an end ; misunderstandings will be 
clarified ; hardships will be of the past ; sufferings 
will cease. When the Lord answered Job out of the 
whirlwind, the patriarch began to interpret the mys- 
teries of his life. We may think God out of our thought, 
but we can not put God away from us. There is 
love in the Father's heart, even when the prodigal is 
rioting in the far country. No day passes without a 
prayer for the absent boy ; no day without a wistful 
look down the road. God will not forget us. There 
are invisible cords which bind us to Him. Oh ! let 
us be responsive! Oh ! let us be more glad of His 
leadership ! Oh ! let us observe even the commas and 



134 THE QUESTION OF MORDECAL 

the semicolons on the page of Providence ! Some one 
has said that " learning rightly apprehended is not 
mere passive reception, as of water into a cistern, 
bringing with it all the accidents and impurities of 
roof or aqueduct. It is water in oak or elm, making 
its way up through living tissue, filtered as it ascends, 
shaking out its leafy banner, hardening into toughest 
fibre." How true of our knowledge of God ! What 
a grand thing it is thus to learn our divine lesson, and 
become " filled with all the fulness of God ! " 

The question of Mordecai calls attention to the 
fact that emergencies seldom fail to test the qual- 
ity of character. In the crisis of her life, Esther ap- 
proved herself. The latent possibilities of her nature 
announced themselves when she started upon her 
perilous undertaking. She had never been tried. 
From the seclusion of her cousin's house she had en- 
tered the royal palace, where she had at once become 
a favorite. No one could have imagined that she 
would exhibit the heroism, the resoluteness, the ad- 
dress, which appeared as soon as she began her diffi- 
cult task. Unconsciously, to herself and to others, 
she had been preparing for this crisis. God knew that 
she must meet it. His omniscience is more sensitive 
in its reports of impending danger than the barom- 
eter is of storms. God was watchful. The crisis 
found Esther possessed of unexpected strength, and it 
left her in full possession of that strength. She had 



THE QUESTION OF MORDECAI. 135 

tested her powers. The memory of that crisis must 
have gone with her to the grave, and very often she 
must have looked back for encouragement when sub- 
sequently tried. These crises, through which we pass 
safely and with victory, become monuments in the 
memory of God's sustaining grace. We have a right 
to refer to them. " Samuel took a stone, and set it 
between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it 
i Ebenezer,' saying, ' Hitherto hath the Lord helped 
us.' " He was unwilling that the Hebrews should 
forget the goodness of God. They had been able to 
recover the ark of God, and to defeat the Philistines. 
A memorable triumph had been recorded. It was 
the Lord who thundered with a great thunder that 
day, and He had discomfited the Philistines. Why, 
then, should they not remember His interference ; 
and why should they not hope for similar assistance 
in every time of need? Christians often wonder if 
they are right in looking back upon past experiences. 
In times of especial trial, when they have been very 
ill, or when they have lost property, or when friends 
have been taken from them, they have been conscious 
of God's presence, and have been surprised to realize 
such composure and resignation as they have known. 
Every promise has yielded its truth: every anticipa- 
tion has been met. Then time and the shifting in- 
terests of life have diverted the soul, and new scenes 
and new occupations have opened new possibilities 



1 36 THE Q UES TION OF MORDECAI. 

of trial. The exposure is evident. Will religion 
prove helpful, once more, when a new crisis is met ? 
Why not ? The Psalmist, in the day of his trouble, 
turned almost instinctively to remember the years of 
the right hand of the Most High. May not we fol- 
low His example ? Is it not true for us that " as thy 
days, so shall thy strength be"? May we not look 
for God in the crises of the future, because He has 
been faithful in the crises of the past? Most cer- 
tainly ! We may wait confidently upon His word ; 
" for He hath said, ' I will never leave thee, nor for- 
sake thee.' So that we may boldly say, 1 The Lord 
is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do 
unto me.' " It is in this way, and in this way only, 
that experience worketh hope. Men of the world shake 
their heads incredulously at this statement of the 
Apostle, " experience worketh hope ! " No ! they can 
not believe it. Contact with the world takes hope 
away. Inexperience is hopeful. The romance of life 
disappears as the years multiply. Disappointments 
are too frequent. Youth expects to realize the for- 
tune. Old age is apt to be satisfied with the prayer : 
" Give us this day our daily bread." But it is not so 
with the servants of God. Experience has satisfied 
them that the things of God are real. They have 
taken soundings for themselves, and they have always 
discovered that the buoys along the channels have 
been carefully located. God has been true. Every 



THE QUESTION OF MORDECAI. 137 

time that they have felt for the Rock they have found 
it. Is it not reasonable, therefore, that they should 
hope on and hope ever? Yes! we may dismiss anx- 
ious solicitude. We know nothing about the partic* 
ular future events of our lives. We must walk by 
faith up to the very last. We may be sick, we may 
be reproached, we may be poor, we shall surely die ; 
yet God will meet us constantly ; and if we are only 
looking for Him, we shall surely be calm and even 
joyful. 

It is evident that God orders our lives so that we 
must meet these crises. We should not grow strong 
if we should be left without them. They seem to be 
necessary. Even the most ordinary events may ac- 
complish this service. For God only can know how 
universal and how varied these crises are. The rich 
man meets them in one way and the poor man in 
another. Yet both meet them. There is no escape ; 
and it is well for us that there is no hope of escape. If 
personal character is the one immortal interest, then 
surely he must bring the most out of life, who is able 
to carry with him into another world the most per- 
fect character. The crises test us. We discover then 
our weakness and our strength. If we are wise, we 
straightway begin to do as the mariner does who has 
made a harbor after a terrific gale. How quickly he 
repairs his ship ; and how eager he is to add strength 
to the rigging, if it has been severely strained. 



133 THE QUESTION OF MORDECAI. 

Character requires constant testing. We must 
co-operate with God in His endeavor to purify and 
to spiritualize us. He has indicated the process. 
We shall ultimately rejoice in the result. I found in 
the book-store a short time ago a little volume of 
64 Reflections in Palestine," by Gen. Gordon, the hero 
of the Soudan. The book had come to us from Lon- 
don, and contains some very interesting evidences 
of the religious views of that remarkable man. These 
" Reflections in Palestine " were written during the 
year 18S3. In reading them, one discovers the se- 
cret of the man's courage, and also of his determina- 
tion. He was a firm believer in God, in the inspiration 
of the Bible, and in the efficacy of prayer. His char- 
acter had been tried again and again. He had lived 
through a very large number of the truths of our 
holy religion. " Praying for the people ahead of me 
whom I am to meet gives me much strength," he 
once said, " and it is wonderful how something seems 
already to have passed between us, when for the first 

time I meet a chief for whom I have prayed I 

really have no troops with me, but I have the Sheki- 
nah, and I do like trusting to Him." From Khartoum 
on the 3d of March, he wrote to the publishers of 
his book : "lam comforted here in my weakness by 
the reflection that our Lord rules all things ; and it is 
dire rebellion to dislike, or murmur against, His rule. 
May His name be glorified ! these people blessed and 



THE QUESTION OF MORDECAI. 139 

comforted ! and may I be deeply humbled and thus 
have a greater sense of His indwelling Spirit ! This 
is my earnest prayer." 

We shall not match His experience ; and yet, in our 
own measure, we may draw upon His resources. Only 
let us know why we are here ; only let us read into 
life its thought ; only let us face toward Heaven, and 
walk with its glory upon us all the time ! 

There is still another thought in this question of 
Mordecai — and a thought of present interest to us 
all — viz., to arrest a great wrong or to avert an im- 
pending calamity, strength and influence should be 
given freely. This was after all the significance of 
the appeal as it reached Esther. She had become 
a queen. Unexpected opportunities of service had 
been presented. She might embrace those oppor- 
tunities, or she might fail. The disaster had not yet 
come. It was only threatened. Should she step for- 
ward now and prevent it by her intercession ? This 
was the question of that hour, and it is the question 
of every hour. The preventive ministry should be 
an active ministry. " We then that are strong ought 
to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please 
ourselves. Let every one of us please his neighbor 
for his good to edification." A very important prin- 
ciple was given prominence in the Mosaic legislation, 
when the Hebrews were commanded to place battle- 
ments upon the roofs of their houses. The house-top 



I 4 o THE QUESTION OF MORDECAL 

was constantly used. It must, therefore, be made 
safe. Friends must be kept from falling off, just as 
they must be treated considerately if so unfortunate 
as to fall off. When our Lord was in Galilee He re- 
fused to dismiss the hungry multitude until He had 
fed them. u I will not send them away fasting," He 
said, " lest they faint in the way." He anticipated 
trouble. A large part of His ministry was exercised 
with reference to prevention. The Church has this 
as her great mission. We establish the Church of 
Christ in new communities with the confident expec- 
tation that she will become a mother to the people. 
We admit children to the communion of the church 
with the hope that we may be able to develop their 
Christian characters, so that they may resist sin in 
every form. A large part of education looks in this 
direction ; and to these claims the ripest talents 
should be given. We need to look ahead. The wise 
man foresees the evil, and makes provision to meet 
it. His eyes are always open. Like a traveller who 
stops to pick up a stone and to throw it out of the 
road for the sake of those who may come after him, 
the wise man is considerate of the generations follow- 
ing. He uses his strength and influence, as a steward 
employs the money of an estate. They are for the 
benefit of his master's property. Can we make life 
brighter? Can we hold our fellow-men to spiritual 
interests? Can we cultivate the flowers and the 



THE QUESTION OF MORDECAI. 141 

fruits to the exclusion of the thorns and the briars? 
This is positive work. It is surely better to try and 
make your friend a good man, than to try and keep 
him from being a bad man. The Gospel v/orks in 
this direction. Its aim is definite and clear. Men are 
to be preserved blameless and presented faultless. 

How often we find a man, after long wanderings 
amidst speculations and doubts, coming back to the 
faith of his childhood and accepting calmly his 
mother's Saviour! That mother may be in Heaven, 
where her prayers have been laid up by God. She 
may have passed away with the painful thought that 
she had failed to lead her son aright. But now her 
influence appears. The early instruction has not 
been lost. She has her reward. Oh ! men with pray- 
ing mothers, whose first breath of life was greeted 
with prayer, whose steps were turned toward the 
straight and narrow way by a loving hand, are you 
mindful of that influence ? does it now affect you ? 
are you conscious of its constraint ? Thank God 
that you have it ! Respond promptly to its plead- 
ing ! Return from all your wanderings to give your 
faith unto Him whom your mother loved and served 
so well ! 

To most of us, the practical interests of temper- 
ance make their appeal right here. We are ourselves 
secure against intemperance, because we have been 
the recipients of a preventive ministry. We have 



I 4 2 THE QUESTION OF MORDECAI. 

been educated to our present convictions. They are 
not the accidents of mere good fortune. Circum- 
stances have exerted their influence upon us, and we 
have learned the wisdom and the expediency of absti- 
nence from the use of all that may intoxicate. This 
is our personal safety. Now, what of our duty ? 
Must we wait until men are drunkards before we 
exert ourselves ? or must we now undertake to pre- 
vent drunkenness in every proper and legitimate 
way? The public sentiment of the age is already 
beginning to speak in answer to that question. We 
must prevent. The intelligence and virtue of every 
community must prevent. The strong arm of the 
law must be employed. Public sentiment must be 
cultivated. The individual conscience must be in- 
structed. Here is a sphere for the exercise of 
strength and influence. The hope of the future de- 
pends upon this exercise. We can not afford to be 
indifferent. To each one of us the question is ad- 
dressed : " Who knoweth whether thou art come to 
the kingdom for such a time as this ? " 

There are men whom we meet who have more 
than once stayed the tide of commercial disaster 
when it was beginning to rush with destructive vio- 
lence. They have simply put forth their strength 
and influence, and confidence has been restored. 
They did not wait until the havoc of the disaster 
had brought ruin to multitudes. They appreciated 



THE QUESTION OF MORDECAI. 143 

the situation. They anticipated, and so prevented 
the calamity. This is quiet work. It seldom goes 
out with music and banners. Yet it is heroes' work. 
The world does not applaud it as they do the clash 
and noise of war. Yet it is better. It may not find 
a place in history, but it carries a good conscience, 
and God pronounces His "well done!" You may 
have had such opportunities in the past ; if so, you 
will look for them in the future. To this end, let us 
seek to be strong and to accumulate influence. A 
man may wonder for years what his strength is good 
for, and how his influence will ever tell. Let him 
not be impatient. His time will come. There is 
some good word for him to speak, some telling action 
for him to accomplish ; only let him cultivate strength 
and influence for service, service, service, always for 
service ; then, when he is summoned, he will be pre- 
pared to meet the duty of the hour. 

If we have carefully followed the course of this 
strangely interesting history, we have already found 
new reasons for trusting God. If you can really 
trust God, then you are ready to enjoy life. God 
gives us hope. We never weary of God. Our invest- 
ments with God pay the best dividends. There can 
be no bankruptcy there. The saints are perpetually 
solvent. Accept God, live for God, work with God, 
and then, oh ! then, life will grow sweet and mellow, 
and its fair prospect of immortal blessedness will 



THE QUESTION OF MORDECAI. 



solve many of the mysteries of time, and will keep 
from us despair and gloom and every foreboding. 
" Many a man has said," remarks an English essayist, 
" I labored to grow rich ; I thought I should be happy 
then ; I have grown rich, and I am no happier than 
before. Many a man has said, I labored to grow 
eminent ; I thought I should be happy th'en ; I have 
gained what I wished, and I am no happier than be- 
fore. But the man never breathed who would say 
the like of the blessings of grace. The man never 
breathed who would say that he had grown weary of 
his Saviour's love and of the blessed Spirit's consola- 
tion ; that he had tried them for himself, and found 
them empty and vain." Turn we, therefore, to God, 
who is always true, always faithful, always satisfying! 
He is near to us in the person of our Saviour, Jesus 
Christ. Accepting Him, the Saviour, we accept God ; 
and when we accept God, we begin to be ready to 
serve one another, to offer to our fellow-men a noble 
personality, to meet the great world with a strength 
which is divine. 



VIII. 



"THE SEA IS HIS." 

u The sea is His, and He made it." — Ps. xcv. 5. 

THE Psalmist looked upon the sea as its waters 
touched the western borders of the Holy Land. In 
his day, commerce had not become familiar with the 
great oceans which are now the highways of the 
world. The Phoenicians, who were bold navigators, 
sometimes passed between the Pillars of Hercules, and 
coasted along the shores of Spain and Gaul until they 
reached Britain. But the Hebrews remained at home, 
satisfied to enjoy the fertility of the hills and valleys 
which God had blessed. They were a favored peo- 
ple. Jerusalem was the centre of their earth. To 
visit the Temple and to participate in the great festi- 
vals made them supremely happy ; while to foster a 
national spirit and to keep separate from the sur- 
rounding heathenism, were duties which their chil- 
dren were taught to regard. The Mediterranean was 
their sea, and its expanse seemed limitless. From 
the heights of Carmel or from the hills of Judah, 
they could observe the vast extent of its waters, and 
could watch the ships which sailed to lands beyond 
7 (145) 



146 



"THE SEA IS HIS." 



the horizon ; while upon the coast from Joppa to 
Sidon, they could hear the deep roar of the surf and 
could enjoy the variety and beauty of the ever-chang- 
ing waves. 

Into the poetry of the Hebrews, the sea entered 
as an illustration of the sublimity, the grandeur, and 
the mysteriousness of God. To their imagination 
He seemed to have kept the sea to Himself. They 
could not understand its secrets any more than they 
could understand His nature. The earth was theirs, 
and they had subdued so much of it as they pos- 
sessed. But the sea — although it was spread out be- 
fore their eyes, although its ownership was like the 
ownership of the firmament above, the common heri- 
tage of the race — filled them with wonder and awe 
and dread. God was there. His way was in the 
sea ; His paths were in the deep waters ; His foot- 
steps were not known. 

Centuries of heroic endeavor have added to man's 
acquaintance with the sea. Its shores have been 
mapped and its depths have been searched. One ocean 
after another has been explored, until now the inac- 
cessible regions about the pole are those which lie 
concealed. Man's familiarity with the sea, however, 
has not made him its master. He can not defy the 
sea, nor can he disregard the authority of the sea. 
God has not given man the sea as his domain. " The 
sea is His, and He made it." How often this con- 



"THE SEA IS HISr 147 

sciousness arises in and takes possession of the mind ! 
Man seems insignificant when he stands before the 
mighty waves of the sea. His splendid armadas and 
his granite foundations are quickly swept away if the 
waters rage against them, and the sea measures its 
strength with theirs. The voice of a king is as pow- 
erless to arrest the rising tide as is that of an infant. 
The sea commands respect. Its laws must be con- 
sidered and obeyed if there is to be escape from its 
wrath, or if there is to be use of its advantages. 
God is there. His voice is heard. His omnipotence 
is manifest. 

As we sympathize with the devout Hebrews in 
their estimate of the sea, we can hardly fail to con- 
sider that the sea is a magnificent expression of 
divine power in the broad expanse of its surface, and 
the absolute control of its waves. Here is a fluid 
substance, always in motion, whose extent is far be- 
yond our estimate, and yet it is held within its own 
bounds and under the most perfect authority of 
divine law. We go down to the shore of the sea 
and meditate alone upon this vastness and order. 
The waves rise and fall, the tides advance and re- 
cede, but there is no confusion. The waters do not 
overleap their appointed bounds. Steadily they lift 
themselves with irresistible power and then they 
pause and quietly retreat, until they are far off in the 
distance. Ordinarily, six to eight feet of tide may 



1 48 " THE SEA IS HISr 

be noticed, sometimes ten to twenty feet, and, occa- 
sionally, forty, fifty, and even seventy feet. The in- 
fluence of the moon is responsible for these mysteri- 
ous changes, which occur with the utmost regularity. 
We can predict when we shall have high tide and 
when the tide will be low ; we can also name the day 
and the hour of each month when the tide will be 
very high and when it will be very low. Without 
this control there could be no safety upon the shores 
of the sea, nor, indeed, upon any portion of the land. 
If the sea was permitted to rise and fall by chance 
the land would be deluged. But God has ordained 
such an order and made such laws, that the silent 
moon is charged with the important duty of main- 
taining the uniformity of the sea level. " As the 
moon moves slowly around the earth," the astrono- 
mer tells us, "her attraction draws up the yielding 
waters of the ocean in a vast wave which moves 
slowly along with her. The same attraction which 
thus lifts a wave on the side of the earth toward 
the moon, draws the earth gently away from the wa- 
ters on the opposite side, and causes a second wave 
there. These two waves sweep steadily onward, fol- 
lowing the movements of the moon — not real, but 
seeming movements — caused by the turning of the 
earth upon its axis." What a beautiful exhibition is 
this of that divine power which upholds all things ! 
How impossible it is to refer to an accident, or to a 



" THE SEA IS HIS." 149 

fortuitous concurrence of atoms, or to any unintelli- 
gent force a result like this, which is so ' evident ! I 
could as soon believe that stone from the mountains, 
and timber from the forests, and iron from the mines, 
and slate from the quarries came together of their 
own motion, or through a certain natural affinity, and 
combined to form a house, as I could believe that 
the tides of the ocean are independent of the exist- 
ence of God. In spite of all modern denials, we must 
still cling to the argument of Paley to prove that de- 
sign implies a designer. Effects must have a cause, 
and the cause must be adequate to the production 
of the effect. The irreverence which attempts to de- 
throne God is rebuked by the sea. His power is a 
sublime reality there. " The floods have lifted up, 
O Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice ; the 
floods lift up their waves. The Lord on high is 
mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the 
mighty waves of the sea." 

But there is another form, or method, of God's con- 
trol to which we may refer. The daily motion of the 
earth upon its axis would pile up the mass of waters 
which compose the sea around the equator, if there 
were no counterbalancing agencies. But God has 
met this difficulty by depressing the form of the 
earth at the two poles, so that its shape is not that of 
a perfect sphere. In this way, the equatorial regions 
are elevated, and the centrifugal force of the daily 



150 THE SEA IS HIS." 

motion is met. Here again there are evidences of the 
most delicate adjustments. We have the alternations 
of day and night, because the earth revolves upon its 
axis ; and we have sea and land in the Northern and 
Southern zones, because the earth is girded at the 
equator by a ridge of mountains. This, God's order, 
has been maintained from the. beginning. Man can 
not affect it. Its operations are beneficent. Life and 
health and prosperity come to us from the sea, which 
God ever holds within its bounds, obedient to His 
purpose. 

This broad expanse of waters is, therefore, eloquent 
with God's praise. We go down to the sea in ships, 
and sail away over the broad expanse. Day follows 
day, week succeeds to week, and month to month, 
while we still pursue our voyage upon the pathless 
ocean. It is estimated that three-fourths of the 
earth's surface is covered by this unstable element ; 
only one-fourth is dry land, intrusted to man as his 
abode. He may use the sea, but it is not his. Upon 
it he can rear no monuments, he can engrave no in- 
scriptions, he can build no cities, he can establish no 
freehold. He is a voyager, often tossed to and fro 
as the sport of the waves, often hurried to destruc- 
tion by the raging of the tempest, and often speeding 
on his way to the desired haven with faithful chart 
and compass. God controls the sea. " The sea is 
His, and He made it." We may cheer our hearts with 



" THE SEA IS HIS." j. 5 1 

this sweet consciousness. Friends beloved are, it may- 
be, far off upon the sea, yet with them God is present. 
He holds the waters in the hollow of His hand. He 
rules the raging of the sea; when the waves thereof 
arise He stills them. Gladly do we wait upon Him. 
Reverently do we anticipate His presence. Tenderly 
do we commit to Him our cherished interests on the 
sea, and beseech Him of His great mercy to protect all 
those who go down to the sea in ships. 

The sea exhibits the wisdom of God in the va- 
riety of its services and the abundance of its life. 
You have observed the phosphorescence of the sea as 
you have watched the breaking of the surf, or as you 
have made your way through the water upon the 
deck of a ship. How brilliant it is ! Yet this phosphor- 
escence is nothing whatever but the activity of life. 
Living creatures, many of them invisible alone to the 
naked eye, flash forth this magnificent illumination by 
their multitude. Mr. Darwin, the naturalist, once 
observed this phenomenon in the Indian Ocean, when 
it covered an area of more than twenty miles. " In 
appearance," he remarks, " it was like a plain of snow. 
The scene was one of awful grandeur ; the sea being 
turned to phosphorus, the heavens being hung in 
blackness, and the stars going out." 

The coral islands of the Pacific are vast cemeteries 
of insect life. Tiny insects have given their lives to 
the construction of these beautiful homes of the palm- 



152 " THE- SEA IS HIS." 

tree, where man has found a residence. Their num- 
ber must have been far beyond any computation. 
Yet each one of them was perfect of its kind, and 
accomplished its predestined work. 

Then there are the fishes and marine animals, so 
strange in their construction, so carefully formed by 
their Creator ; and the plants of countless varieties, 
which hide their beauty in the depths of the sea. God 
made them all. They are His. With many of them man 
has scarcely formed an acquaintance. They are be- 
yond his reach. He can only wonder and adore, as 
he searches the deep places of the sea, and brings 
forth the treasures which are hidden there. The sea 
is God's great museum of natural history, into which 
man may sometimes enter, and from which it is hardly 
possible to come forth without new impressions of 
the Creator's wisdom and skill. Life, life on every 
side, and life constantly appealing to the Infinite 
Source of all Life. 

Mention has been made of the tides, and we should 
not fail to think for a moment of their services. They 
are the great purifiers of the earth. With their sweet, 
clean waters, they make their way into bays and 
harbors and rivers, washing the shores, and carrying 
off with them a great amount of waste and filth. 
Toulon and Marseilles, in France, have both suffered 
this present season,* because their artificial harbors 

* 1884. 



"THE SEA IS HIS." ^3 

upon the Mediterranean Sea are not swept by the 
tides ; and London, the greatest city of the world, is 
habitable, because the strong tides find their way far 
beyond London Bridge. What a beneficent provision 
this is ! How dependent man is upon it ! Yet how 
seldom do we consider the wisdom which ordained 
and rules it ! 

The tides suggest the great currents of the sea like 
the Gulf Stream ; and what a marvellous display of 
divine forethought is here ! " There is a river in the 
ocean," says Lieut. Maury. " In the severest droughts 
it never fails, and in the mightiest floods it never 
overflows. Its banks and its bottom are of cold 
water, while its current is of warm. The Gulf of 
Mexico is its fountain, while its mouth is in the Arctic 
seas. It is the Gulf Stream. There is in the world 
no other such majestic flow of waters. Its current is 
more rapid than the Mississippi or Amazon, and its 
volume more than a thousand times greater." These 
currents of the sea carry with them and dispense heat 
and fertility, cold and moisture. They flow in many 
directions, and are the dependence of large portions 
of the civilized world. The nations of Northern 
Europe would soon be driven from their homes by 
frost and ice if the Gulf Stream should cease to pour 
its waters along their shores ; and the Tropical seas 
would become too warm for life, with the intense 
rays of the sun pouring upon them, if their waters 



154 "THE SEA IS HIS." 

were not constantly chilled by the Polar currents, 
which flow from the regions of perpetual ice. Thus 
the wisdom of God has made provision for the welfare 
of man in all parts of the world, and the sea is the 
intelligent servant whose duties are indicative of His 
omniscience. 

Land-locked seas, like the Mediterranean and the 
Red, are powerfully affected by evaporation. This 
evaporation would dry up the seas in time, but for 
the fact that the currents of water made dense with 
brine flow out into the oceans, while the ocean cur- 
rents, much lighter and with less brine, flow in to 
maintain the level. These two currents, the one 
above the other, are constantly in motion, and the 
result is the maintenance of the sea. Here is a new 
evidence of divine forethought and power. For God 
alone could have foreseen this necessity, and no pow- 
er but His could have given such orderly and essen- 
tial currents to the waters of the sea. 

The sea performs an important part in the activity 
of the great law of circularity. This law secures the 
distribution of matter, in its changes, over the face 
of the earth. Nothing is lost. Matter changes its 
form without destruction. As the sacred writer has 
declared : " The wind goeth toward the south, and 
turneth about unto the north ; it whirl eth about con- 
tinually, and the wind returneth again according to 
his circuits. All the rivers run into the sea ; yet the 



"THE SEA IS HIS." 1 55 

sea is not full : unto the place from whence the riv- 
ers come, thither they return again." " The thing 
that hath been, it is that which shall be ; and that 
which is done is that which shall be done ; and there 
is no new thing under the sun." Here is a most 
perfect adjustment, in which the sea is especially 
active. It receives the waters of the streams, and 
returns them to the clouds ; it arouses many of the 
winds which sweep the moisture-laden clouds to the 
regions of mountains and valleys. The activity is 
incessant. By means of it the atmosphere is purified, 
the early and the latter rains are given, and life is per- 
petuated. Very beautifully has a Christian thinker* 
of Scotland expressed himself in his reflections upon 
this divine law : " Unlike man's best machinery, this 
process produces absolutely no waste; not so much 
as a dewdrop goes amissing in a thousand years. A 
drop exhales from the ground as the morning sun 
grows hot ; it goes out of sight in the unfathomable 
ocean of air ; but it is not lost, it is in the book, and 
in by double entry ; it must and will cast up at the 
balance in its proper place. It dissipates from a 
daisy in your garden in June ; if stock were taken at 
Christmas, it might be found frozen in at St. Peters- 
burg on the Neva, or sparkling as it leaps from the 
paddle of a canoe on an unnamed African lake ; it 



* Dr. Arnot, " The Present World," p. 46. 



156 "THE SEA IS HIS." 

might be found on a pinnacle of the fantastic icicles 
that adorn Niagara, or springing in the fountains 
that feed the mysterious Nile ; it might be found ad- 
hering to the feather with which a mother and queen 
is wetting the lips of her son and heir at the deep, 
dark, midnight turning-point of his fever, or consti- 
tuting a portion of the great tear standing on the 
black cheek of an African youth while the white 
slaver is counting out the price and stowing away 
the cargo ; it might be found — but where might it 
not be found? Only one thing is sure, it can not 
be lost." 

How admirable does the wisdom of the Supreme 
Being appear when its manifestations are considered ! 
God hides Himself, but He acquaints us with His 
character. Back of and prior to these wonderful phe- 
nomena of nature we recognize God. He is our de- 
pendence. In Him we rejoice. His presence adds 
interest to every tint on leaf or flower; to every 
voice of insect or of bird ; to every motion of cloud 
or sea. The earth is God's temple, in which His 
praise is constantly heard, while" man alone refuses 
to do Him homage. Yet to man He has revealed 
Himself in the clearest terms, and from him He de- 
sires a sendee of holy love. Let us, brethren, recog- 
nize God in His works, and let us render Him the 
praise of reverent, devout, and appreciative hearts. 

The sea announces God's supremacy in its ac- 



" THE SEA IS HIS." 1 5 7 

ceptance of man's presence, and its co-operation in 
man's work. Man uses the sea by permission. He, 
does not do well to be boastful. Experience has 
taught him to respect the sea, and the success with 
which he navigates will be measured by his consid- 
eration of its laws. Some years ago I passed a quiet 
summer night upon a .vessel within the shelter of 
Montauk Point. An old sea captain, who had sailed 
in charge of whaling ships, was in command. As 
darkness came upon us, I observed that he carefully 
reefed the sails, and when I asked the reason of such 
a precaution, as there was no appearance of rising 
wind, the old man replied : " We can not tell what 
may happen before morning, and it is well to be pre- 
pared for any change of weather." The sea does not 
permit trifling. It co-operates most helpfully in the 
work of commerce, if commerce will obey its laws. 
But otherwise it resists with violence every aggres- 
sion, and punishes with severity man's acts of dis- 
obedience. You or I are at liberty to build our ships 
as we please, to provision them as we please, and to 
sail them as we please ; and the sea is at liberty to 
meet us in our folly and to dash us to destruction. 
If we meet destruction as the reward of folly, we are 
culpable. God invites us to use the sea, but we must 
use it lawfully. The chart and the compass are at 
our service ; instruments of delicate construction to 
indicate approaching storms are within our reach ; 



158 " THE SEA IS HIS." 

experience has given us a record of many successes 
and of many failures. If we propose to use the sea, 
we must exhibit our intelligence and our prudence in 
our preparations to sail. A man may imagine that 
he is a hero, when he ventures to cross the stormy 
Atlantic in a little open boat, but most men will think 
that he is foolhardy. The Atlantic has been crossed 
and is crossed each week with the uniformity of a 
ferry service, but skilled navigators, obedient to the 
laws of the sea, are in charge of the service, and the 
wise man sails with those who have approved them- 
selves upon the sea. 

Is there not a thought here which lays hold on 
eternal life ? There is a sea before us all. One day — 
we know not when — we must embark. The further 
shore we have not seen, nor have we seen returning 
one of the many millions of our race who have 
already sailed from us upon this wide sea. Yet do 
we believe that there is a further shore, for the same 
reason that we, who have never left this continent of 
ours, believe that, looking eastward, we are facing the 
shores of France or Portugal or Spain. Of those 
shores we have often heard. Credible witnesses have 
spoken of their interesting scenes and attractive life. 
We are somewhat familiar with them, although we 
have never visited them. We should be ashamed 
to question their reality, and that in view of testi- 
mony. Shall we accept the word of man, and then 



"THE SEA IS HIS." 159 

shall we question the word of Him who spake as 
never man spake? Jesus Christ came to us from 
those blessed shores beyond the sea of time. He 
has described the land which He calls Heaven. In 
every particular his statements, so far as we have 
been able to prove them, have commended them- 
selves. He is the truth. His character is perfec- 
tion. We accept what He has said with joy : we 
anticipate the glory of the better land. It is there 
beyond us. We hope to reach it, and to share its 
blessedness. 

But how ? How shall we cross the sea ? Is it wise 
to attempt to struggle over in our own unaided 
strength ? Shall we be borne to the further shore if 
we cast ourselves upon the waters ? Will the skiffs 
and rafts of our own construction hold together while 
we attempt the voyage ? Or are we acquainted with a 
method, approved by long experience, commended 
by the authority of God, to which we may commit the 
interests of our immortal souls ? There is such a 
method. It considers the requirements of the voy- 
age. The laws of this great sea are respected by it. 
It has proved a safe transport from shore to shore. 
No one who has ever accepted its safety has repented 
of his choice. It is still accessible. We are invited 
to intrust ourselves to its promises. 

This divine provision is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, 
which we may accept. God has sent His Son to be 



i6o 



"THE SEA IS HIS: 



the Saviour of the world. He has spoken the word 
of life, and He has given His life to redeem us. " The 
law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus" is the only 
known law which meets the requirements of human 
destiny. If we accept this law, if we live by it, if 
we make it our dependence for time and for eternity, 
we shall reach Heaven and shall secure an abundant 
entrance there. But if we reject this law, if we re- 
fuse to live by it, if we cast it from us as our de- 
pendence, we can have no hope whatever of entering 
Heaven and of being happy there. This, therefore, 
is the only salvation, and it is offered to us freely in 
the abundance of God's love. As we must all embark 
upon this sea, whose waters wash the confines of 
each mortal life, should we not make early provision 
for the voyage ? We know not when we shall be 
called to sail. Let us be ready at any hour, by simple 
confidence in Jesus Christ our Lord. 

And what is true of this interest is true of every 
other interest which is under the control of law. 
Obedience means success. When we meet the terms 
of the law, we secure the promised blessing. There 
are exceptions to this rule, but they only confirm the 
statement. Obedience is a necessity. Life must be 
conducted under the reign of law. 

Thus the sea rebukes our pride. We can not boast 
much, although we have accomplished much. We 
are dependent, always dependent. The little that we 



"THE SEA IS HIS." 161 

gain we hold as stewards, and the little that we do, 
we do by co-operation. God alone is great. We 
should be humble, and docile, and willing always to 
acknowledge His supremacy. 

And can we, in the presence of the sea, cherish an 
unbelieving thought ? Can we, with the fool of the 
Psalmist's day, say in our hearts, "There is no God " ? 
"The sea is His, and He made it." Its testimony 
is eloquent. Not only do we wrong God when we 
neglect to recognize Him and give Him praise, we 
also wrong ourselves. For life can not be rich 
and full and noble if God is not in all its thoughts. 
The men of the sea are seldom infidels. " They see 
the works of the Lord, and His wonders in the deep." 
They realize that they are in His hands, and in their 
hours of danger they cry aloud unto Him for help. 
Here are these many evidences of a presence whose 
control is omnipotence and whose wisdom is perfect. 
That presence must be explained. We can not refer 
this order, these delicate adjustments, this magnifi- 
cent expanse to chance, nor can we feel any better 
satisfied if we simply talk about nature's laws. Laws 
are not operative. There must be a lawgiver and an 
administrator of law. Who is he? How shall we 
name him ? Shall we say that the origin of all things 
is lost in the dimness of eternity ? Shall we announce 
the conviction that matter, force, and motion will 
account for what is visible without any effort to ac- 



"THE SEA IS HIS." 



count for matter, force, and motion ? Or shall we read 
the record of Holy Scripture and accept its announce- 
ment that " in the beginning God created the heaven 
and the earth " ? Here is a resting-place. In God 
thought finds an adequate explanation of things 
which do appear, affection receives the recompense 
of confidence, and the service of life opens grandly 
with a divine interpretation. " Every house is 
builded by some man, but He that built all things 
is God." So we raise our heads to look upon the 
stars, and behold " the heavens declare God's glory 
and the firmament showeth His handiwork"; we 
walk abroad through the fields, and every plant, every 
flower, every insect, every bird, adds to our estimate 
that " the hand that made us is divine "; we stand 
upon the shore and watch the waves and hear the 
pounding of the surf, and rejoice to believe that " the 
sea is His, and He made it." For we have learned that 
He who " telleth the number of the stars," that He 
" who clothes the grass of the field," that He who 
watches the sparrow's flight, that He who layeth up 
the depth in store-houses is our God, to whom we 
look with the confidence of filial love, who has made 
known to us His counsel, who has prepared for us a 
home, who has offered us a salvation, and who saves 
us by His grace. 



IX. 



THE PAST IN THE PRESENT AND THE 
FUTURE. 

" He shall call to the heavens from above, and to 
the earth, that He may judge His people" — 
Ps. 1. 4. 

The heavens and the earth constitute the empire 
of God. He reigns over the entire universe. No 
interest is too insignificant for His regard, none is too 
vast for His control. The flight of the sparrow is 
observed ; the cry of the young raven is noticed ; the 
grass of the field is clothed : and at the same time 
God telleth the number of the stars, and calleth them 
all by their names ; He ruleth the raging of the sea, 
and when the waves thereof arise He stilleth them ; 
He doeth according to His will in the army of Heaven 
and among the inhabitants of the earth. 

In His government God is not affected by the 
limitations of time. " One day is with the Lord as a 
thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." 
To the divine intelligence, the present, the past, and 
the future must be an eternal now. A single glance 
of omniscience compasses the entire field of observa- 

(163) 



164 THE PAST, THE PRESENT, THE FUTURE. 

tion. The end is declared from the beginning. 
Events record themselves to serve the purposes of 
judgment. There can be no mistakes. Strict and 
impartial justice will be dispensed to every human 
being, when the Book of God's Remembrance shall 
discover its contents. 

Meanwhile the present is steadily encroaching upon 
the future, and as steadily adding to the past. The 
car in which we are riding upon the invisible track of 
destiny is the present, whose advance acquaints us 
with the thought of the future, and leaves behind our 
impression upon the life of the past. We are con- 
stantly moving. The mile-stones of the journey dis- 
appear, one by one, after we have approached them. 
The end is soon reached ; and the car in which we 
ride becomes as invisible to mortal eyes as is the track 
which must still determine our course. Looking 
back, we have the past, and that is historic ; looking 
around, we have the present, and that is always chang- 
ing ; looking ahead, we contemplate the future, and 
that has no brightness, if it is not illuminated by the 
promise of God. 

A theme for the closing Sabbath of the year thus 
announces itself, and we may hope for instruction as 
we consider the relation of the past to the present 
and the future. 

1st. The present and the future rest upon and are 
the expressions of the past. " Other men labored," 



THE PAST, THE PRESENT, THE FUTURE. 165 

the Master said, " and ye are entered into their labors." 
No generation can be independent of the preceding 
generations. As David collected a large part of the 
materials with which Solomon built the Temple, so 
the energy and intelligence of former years bear fruit 
in the grand results which are now apparent. Parents 
toil and endure all manner of privations in order that 
they may educate the sons and daughters who become 
illustrious. They live in their children. Through 
their services to humanity and to God, they serve 
their day and generation. How quick we were to 
recognize this sacred relation, when the lamented 
Garfield drew to himself the sympathy of the world 
in those weary days of heroic suffering ! The life of 
'his mother, a humble woman, who had struggled 
bravely with adversity, made his life a splendid 
reality. Hereditary traits and ancestral conditions 
have much to do with success or failure. The pure 
blood of virtue and temperance means health and 
vigor, sobriety and industry ; while the vicious blood 
of lust and cunning and tyranny will record its pres- 
ence in the narratives of many evil deeds. Why does 
Europe dread the supremacy of the Bourbons ; and 
why does France shrink from accepting the authority 
of the Bonapartes ? Why does crime perpetuate 
itself from generation to generation ; and why are 
•the children of the righteous so often found in the 
places of their fathers ? The roots of our lives may 



1 66 THE PAST, THE PRESENT, THE FUTURE. 



be traced to a great distance. The beginnings of 
present results are often visible in the early centuries. 
Our lives are an inheritance. We have received a 
legacy of blessing, which we are expected to use ; and 
in the using we are expected to increase ; and with 
its increase we are commanded to transmit. How 
seldom do we realize this ! The prodigality of the 
spendthrift squanders the fortune which his ancestors 
accumulated, so that there is nothing left for those 
who are to come after him, while his dissipation ex- 
hausts the physical resources which he has also 
received, so that his descendants are a puny, sickly, 
useless race. This law of heredity imposes fearful 
demands. It makes life intensely solemn. " None 
of us liveth to himself." The generation following 
may rise up to call us blessed, or else may appear to 
condemn a selfish disregard of our future, which be- 
comes their present. 

A survey of the past in its relation to the present 
can hardly fail to impress a thoughtful mind with a 
sense of dependence. Our common utensils are the 
implements of a former science. We do our work 
every day with tools which have only been produced 
by patient thought. Discovery and invention keep 
pace with the requirements of the age — never very 
far ahead, and yet never behind. We wondered once 
what we should do for fuel, as the forests were disap- 
pearing under the stroke of the woodman's axe. Then 



THE PAST, THE PRESENT, THE FUTURE. 167 

inexhaustible supplies of coal were announced, and a 
method of burning coal was suggested. The farthing 
rush-light was succeeded by the more brilliant oil- 
lamp, and that by the brighter gas-jet, and a flame 
which is fed by springs in the earth ; and now elec- 
tricity is prepared to illuminate our paths and to cheer 
our abodes. Each new thought is quickly appro- 
priated and becomes a part of our working capital. 
We begin life upon an advanced plane. We handle 
the mysteries of other years as the science of things 
familiar. Our possibilities are greatly enlarged. Yet 
we can never forget our debt. Constantly a voice is 
heard — and it is more impressive far than the voice of 
the slave which sought to restrain the pride of the 
Roman conqueror by saying in the hour of his triumph : 
" Thou too art a man ! " " Thou too art a man ! " — 
a voice is heard asking : " Who maketh thee to differ 
from another? and what hast thou that thou didst 
not receive ? " Boasting is excluded. Humility is 
commended. Our vantage-ground of opportunity is 
simply the splendid platform of past achievements. 
All literature, all science, all art, all religion join in 
the tribute of praise which commemorates the 
diligence of former times. The present is but a 
single tier of a splendid pyramid. It rests upon and 
springs out of the many tiers which are beneath it. 
We can not forget. We are fellow-laborers. The 
work is common to us all. Shall we not rejoice to- 



1 68 THE PAST, THE PRESENT, THE FUTURE. 



gether, by and by, when the capstone is lifted to its 
position amidst shouts of "grace," " grace," unto it? 

But a consciousness like this will surely assist us in 
estimating the importance of our own place and 
work. We are now the active generation. Our pres- 
ent will very soon become another past. There is a 
future, which must be affected by what we are and 
by what we do. In building a tower, careless masons 
will sometimes introduce a course of soft brick or 
stone, whose presence will become evident, when the 
weight of the other courses begins to be felt. His- 
tory is acquainted with similar periods — periods like 
the age of Charles the Second, which succeeded the 
stern, heroic administration of Cromwell. They are 
weak and contemptible. No vigorous policies are 
outlined, and no useful deeds are recorded. Let us 
elevate the period of our influence and control above 
the plane of the commonplace ! We should leave 
the world better than we found it. The unfinished 
problems are for our solution. Let us know what 
they are ; let us have convictions respecting them ; 
and let us give our talents and our time freely on 
their behalf. This is just what others have done in 
other years. May we not imitate them ? There are 
the unsettled questions of the war, questions pertain- 
ing to the freedmen and their rights. There are the 
questions which affect the Indians. There is the ab- 
sorbing question of Temperance. There is the Mor- 



THE PAST; THE PRESENT, THE FUTURE. 169 

mon question. There is the question of labor and 
capital, and the question of charity. We need not 
fear that we shall exhaust the supply. That seems 
to be limitless. There are questions enough and 
work enough for us all. Let us not be idle. Let 
us not be indifferent. " Brethren, let every man 
wherein he is called, therein abide with God." 
" Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with 
thy might/' "There are diversities of gifts, but 
the same spirit. And there are differences of admin- 
istrations, but the same Lord." We are making his- 
tory. Our simple deeds are more important than 
they seem. God observes us. There is encourage- 
ment in His recognition. Who can describe the glory 
which is wrapped up within the benediction : " Well 
done, good and faithful servant : thou hast been 
faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over 
many things : enter thou into the joy of thy Lord ! " 

2d. The past illustrates the principles which must 
be operative in the present and the future. Life has 
always been under the control of these principles. 
Even when men have been ignorant of their presence 
and activity, they have exerted their control. For 
the discovery of a principle is not its origination. 
The great principle of gravitation has been at work 
from the beginning, and yet not until Sir Isaac 
Newton expounded it did science appreciate the ex- 
tent and character of its influence. The divine and 
8 



iyo THE PAST, THE PRESENT, THE FUTURE. 

holy principle of love has always been true, and yet 
war continues to desolate the earth, and enmities and 
strifes abound. It is a principle of God's govern- 
ment, that "righteousness exalteth a nation," and 
yet the prevalence of unrighteous authority is a dis- 
tressing spectacle in every age. A careful scrutiny 
will surely discover these grand principles which have 
conditioned human life. Now that we are searching 
for them, we shall make their acquaintance, and 
shall profit by their instruction. Just as the astron- 
omer works back into time and space from the op- 
portunity of each new discovery of planet, star, or 
nebula so may we inquire diligently of the past in 
order that we may learn the lessons thus presented. 
History moves in great circles, but the circles are 
spiral. We never return to the same point. Our 
apparent return marks a real advance. We are ever 
to remember that we are using the principles which 
made the past. They have already been illustrated 
many times ; and we have them, in our turn, for 
illustration. 

This should be the teaching of experience, which, 
alas, impresses very few minds. We are not ready to 
accept the testimony which comes to us from the 
wisdom and folly of preceding years. We must ex- 
periment for ourselves. What progress we should 
make, if we should use to the best advantage the ex- 
perience of other men ! How a father would rejoice, 



THE PAST, THE PRESENT, THE FUTURE, jyj 

if he could feel sure that his son would avoid the 
mistakes which have crippled his own life! How 
glad a mother's heart would be if she could know 
that her daughter would start out in life from the 
stand-point of the experience which she herself has 
gained and also expounded ! But no, it seems to be 
impossible for us to learn of the past. We are not 
warned, as we should be, nor are we encouraged as 
we should be. Yet the past is an object-lesson, which 
God holds up for our instruction. 

I should be quite willing to submit the whole sub- 
ject of the advantage or the disadvantage of religion 
to the teaching of experience. What does experience 
say? We have this year observed many of the true 
disciples of Christ — friends, whose consistency has 
been most beautiful. They have walked with God. 
Some of them have endured great spiritual conflicts, 
contending desperately with temptation, or battling 
with the ills of misfortune, or struggling to vanquish 
death. We have watched them closely. They have 
been sustained, and they have been victorious. Out 
of the year, they have brought far more than we 
have. They are truly rich, because they are " rich 
toward God." He has been with them to strengthen, 
and to cheer, and to bless them in many ways. Can 
we question this? Is not their experience genuine ? 
If so, may we not expect a similar experience, if we 
place ourselves under the influence of the principle 



i; 2 THE PAST, THE PRESENT, THE FUTURE. 

of grace ? In other words, will not religion do for us 
as much as it has done for them ? Certainly it will. 
" God is no respecter of persons." The promise is 
to us as much as to them. We may enjoy these 
priceless blessings. Why then do we fail ? Why are 
we without them? Is God to blame? Or does not 
the fault lie with us? Yes ! We do not profit by ex- 
perience. The opportunity is ours. But we have 
not sought to embrace it. Our Christian friends, liv- 
ing here beside us, are our condemnation, just as the 
fertile acres of the faithful husbandman are the con- 
demnation of his idle neighbor's wretched farm. 1 We 
may use the means. Repentance is ours. Faith is 
ours. Prayer is ours. God's Word is ours. The 
Saviour is ours. And the invitation reads: "Who- 
soever will, let him take the water of life freely." 
Ah ! we are losing the very best happiness of life, if 
we are losing the precious blessings of the Gospel. 
The past admonishes us. We can not hope to hear 
God's invitation forever. The years of grace come to 
an end. God's Spirit will not always strive with man. 
We may be left to despair, even while life is pro- 
longed. The angels look down upon no object which 
is more pitiable than a God-forsaken man. The Holy 
Spirit has been withdrawn. He is past feeling. The 
man is dead in sin ; and for this death there is no 
resurrection. May God, in His infinite mercy, keep 
us all from this misery of despair, by bringing us 



THE PAST, THE PRESENT, THE FUTURE. 173 

right speedily to a saving knowledge of our Lord 
Jesus Christ ! But even with a degree of sensitive- 
ness, we may still fail of securing everlasting life. 
For death may come upon us unawares. As we re- 
view the events of a single year, how many unex- 
pected deaths we encounter. This acquaintance met 
with an accident. He was taken, and we were 
left. Another fell back in his chair, and expired. 
He was taken, and we were left. Still another 
was absent from business for a day or two, and 
then we observed the announcement of his death. 
He was taken, and we were left. A few only of the 
large number who have passed away had a clear 
recognition of the approach of God's messenger. 
Death usually comes as a thief in the night. Seldom 
is there time for intelligent preparation after that 
coming has been made known. The mind, enfeebled 
by sickness or clouded by delirium, seems not to have 
the ability to grasp the truth of salvation. At the 
very best, we dismiss such penitents with the sad 
feeling that our hope for them is only a " perhaps." 
They have been sowing the wind, and we have many 
fears that they will reap the whirlwind. 

For there is a stern law of requital, which, for good 
or ill, the past illustrates. " The Lord God of recom- 
penses shall surely requite." " A man's life comes 
back upon him." No power but that of the Gospel 
can arrest the operation of this law, or convert into 



174 THE PAST, THE PRESENT, THE FUTURE. 

helpful chastisements its punitive expressions. Even 
the holy Apostle Paul bowed his head and accepted 
meekly the sufferings which he believed that he de- 
served, because he had persecuted the Church of 
Christ. His was not an easy Christian life. After he 
had breathed out threatenings and slaughter against 
the disciples of the Lord, he himself became ac- 
quainted with experiences, which he thus described : 
" Five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice 
was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I 
suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in 
the deep. In journeyings often, in perils of waters, 
in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own country- 
men, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, 
in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in 
perils among false brethren, in weariness and pain- 
fulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in 
fastings often, in cold and nakedness." What a ret- 
ribution ! What a harvest after the sowing of tears 
and blood ! " This law," it is said,* " keeps things 
equal. If any man could mingle bitter cups for 
others, and never be compelled to drain their dregs 
himself, he would soon become a devil. God shows 
him that his turn is coming. Every blow he strikes 
will be re-delivered upon himself ; every pain he in- 
flicts upon others will sting his own heart; every 



* Joseph Parker, "Pulpit Notes," p. 65. 



THE PAST, THE PRESENT, THE FUTURE. 175 

harsh word will come back to him ; his mockery, his 
pitilessness, his selfishness will return to him, and 
vex him like a plague commanded of God. All his- 
tory has shown this." Speaking with the solemnity 
of one of the ancient prophets, Mr. Lincoln used 
such words as these in his second Inaugural Address : 
" Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this 
mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet 
if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled 
by the bondman's two hundred and fifty years of un- 
requited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of 
blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another 
drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand 
years ago, so still it must be said, that the judgments 
of the Lord are true and righteous altogether." Is 
it safe then to do wrong? Is a violation of law 
traced upon the waters, or written on the air, or cast 
into the ground like seed ? The recompense is cer- 
tain. God is just. 

But there is another side to the operation of this 
law, and a side which is most pleasant to contem- 
plate — " Whosoever shall give to drink unto one of 
these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name 
of a disciple, verily I say unto you he shall in nowise 
lose his reward." " Give and it shall be given unto 
you ; good measure, pressed down, and shaken to- 
gether, and running over shall men give into your 
bosom ; for with the same measure that ye mete 



iy6 THE PAST, THE PRESENT, THE FUTURE. 

withal, it shall be measured to you again." How 
interesting and how instructive are these illustra- 
tions ! They are the bright gems of the past. We 
admire them as we observe the respect which is 
rendered to a useful life, or the sympathy which goes 
out to an honored benefactor, or the blessing which 
attends the fidelity of children to parents. There is 
a gracious return. No investments pay such good 
dividends as do kind deeds. 

Thus the past repeats itself in the present and out- 
lines the future. The histories which the Bible con- 
tains anticipate all possible experiences — the varieties 
of joy and sorrow, of hope and disappointment, of 
love and hate. Rachel, weeping for her children, has 
her counterpart in the mother whose tears were fresh 
yesterday, and David, lamenting Absalom's rebellion 
and death, carries the sad heart of a father whose 
son is a modern prodigal ; Simeon, whose vision greets 
the infant Redeemer, expresses the joy which is still 
known when faith beholds Him who is mighty to 
save, and Mary of Bethany, whose gratitude selects 
the offering of the costly spikenard, anticipates the 
devotion which in every age has been constrained by 
the love of Christ ; Hezekiah, with the letter of his 
enemy spread out before the Lord, is earthly power 
taking counsel of omnipotence, and Daniel, kneeling 
in his chamber with his windows open toward Jeru- 
salem, is the statesman on his knees in prayer; Jesus 



THE PAST, THE PRESENT, THE FUTURE, jyy 

looking into the face of the young ruler, and loving 
him, is the perpetual assurance of God's tender inter- 
est, and Jesus calmly addressing the widow of Nain 
is still the hope of many who are in deep grief. The 
Bible can never lose its interest so long as heart 
answereth to heart and the experiences of the race 
are common. 

And we know that in the future — the future of 
this world, and the future of those other worlds — the 
two — these principles will still be operative. " He 
that is unjust, let him be unjust still ; and he which 
is filthy, let him be filthy still ; and he that is right- 
eous, let him be righteous still ; and he that is holy, 
let him be holy still." The development of iniquity, 
what must that be? The development of holiness, 
what must that be? Hell and Heaven ! Everlasting 
punishment and life eternal ! 

3d. The events of the past move on before the 
present to prepare for the judgment of the future. 
Those events are awaiting. They must confront us. 
We shall have to explain them. Our use of the tele- 
graph gives us some conception of the rapidity of 
these transmissions. Some time ago a crime was com- 
mitted in England, whose punishment was promptly 
secured by the aid of the electric spark. Along the 
wires there flashed a message one evening to this 
effect : " A murder has just been committed at Salt- 
hill, and the suspected murderer was seen to take a 
8* 



178 THE PAST, THE PRESENT, THE FUTURE. 

first-class ticket for London by the train which left 

S at 7 : 45. He is in the garb of a Quaker." In 

the compartment of the railway carriage the guilty 
man sat with his fellow-travellers, who had no idea 
whatever that he was a murderer. The darkness of 
the night seemed to be favoring his escape. He 
reached the Paddington Station in safety, and entered 
an omnibus, which soon carried him into the intri- 
cacies of the narrow London streets, where he might 
expect to hide. He did not know that an officer of 
the law, in disguise, was riding with him, and con- 
stantly watching him. Leaving the omnibus at the 
Bank of England, he crossed street after street until 
he reached an obscure lodging-house in Scott's Yard. 
Hardly had the door closed behind him when it was 
opened by the officer, who had followed him step by 
step, and the question was asked : " Haven't you just 

come from S ? " The record of the crime had 

preceded him. He was found guilty, and then pun- 
ished. More rapid than the lightning's flash and more 
unerring than any methods of telegraphy is the dis- 
cernment of God. Even our secret sins appear in the 
light of His countenance. "All things are naked and 
opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have 
to do." There is no escape. " Whither," asks the 
Psalmist, "shall I go from Thy Spirit? or whither 
shall I flee from Thy presence ? If I ascend up into 
Heaven, Thou art there ; if I make my bed in Hell, 



THE PAST, THE PRESENT, THE FUTURE. iyg 

behold Thou art there. If I take the wings of the 
morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, 
even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right 
hand shall hold me. If I say, surely the darkness 
shall cover me, even the night shall be light about 
me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from Thee ; but 
the night shineth as the day ; the darkness and the 
light are both alike to Thee." Thus we live these 
lives of ours. Each event is sent forward as it oc- 
curs — the good and the bad alike. The past antici- 
pates the present and joins the future. The old 
forgotten self reappears and demands judgment. The 
entire life awaits each one of us at the bar of God. 
What an accumulation of happiness as well as of 
misery! What bright lights upon the horizon as 
well as heavy clouds ! The entire life is there ; and 
the soul, the man himself, is steadily advancing to 
meet his own record. 

An essay of an astronomical character was once 
written to emphasize the nature of this sublime pos- 
sibility. It is well known that light moves through 
space with a uniform velocity, and it is also known 
that many stars are so distant that thousands of our 
years would be required for a ray of light to proceed 
from them on its journey to our earth. Indeed, when 
we see the light, the star may long ago have been 
obliterated ; for the light which we see may have 
left the star before the creation of man. Using this 



l8o THE PAST, THE PRESENT, THE FUTURE. 



fact of astronomy, Dr. Hugh MacMillan, in a recent 
publication,* says : that " the visible record of much 
that happened on our earth is still travelling by means 
of light through the regions of space ; as the stars 
recede, so time recedes with them, and an actual and 
true representation of any event may be seen in some 
star. We may be looking unconsciously any night at 
some orb in the sky from which if we could transport 
ourselves thither, and were endowed with the neces- 
sary optical power, we should be able to see our 
Saviour walking upon the Sea of Galilee, hanging 
upon the cross, or ascending to Heaven from the 
Mount of Olives. And passing as swiftly as a ray 
of light from a star of the twelfth magnitude to our 
sun, the whole history of the world, from the time of 
Abraham to the present day, would pass in review be- 
fore our eyes in the space of a single hour." What 
a spectacle ! What a conception of the consciousness 
of God who " shall call to the heavens from above, 
and to the earth, that He may judge His people ! " 

Then comes memory with its personal announce- 
ments. It is probable that memory retains all that 
is given to it. We may seem to forget a great many 
things which presently appear as our condemnation 
or acquittal. One of the Books of God is undoubt- 
edly the memory of man. What a day will that be, 



* " Two Worlds are Ours," p. 287. 



THE PAST, THE PRESENT, THE FUTURE. 181 



when the dead, small and great, stand before God, 
and the books are opened ! 

Life is solemn. We can not make it a pastime, or 
a farce. For even the folly, which trifles with life 
and opportunity, is impressively solemn. To waste 
life, to squander splendid opportunities, to flit to and 
fro like the moth around the candle whose flame is 
soon to capture and consume the silly one, to degrade 
intellect by vice, to spend strength in the service of 
iniquity, — what is all this but a lamentable abuse of 
the choicest blessings of God ! And if we have 
grasped the thought of a noble life, if we have be- 
come possessed of a holy inspiration, if we are moving 
in harmony with the divine purpose, if we are laying 
up treasure in Heaven — what is all this but a glorious 
use of sacred privileges ! 

But if life is solemn, should we not give heed to the 
approved lessons of experience ? How shall we learn 
to live if we are not taught, and where shall we find 
a better teacher than Jesus Christ, who speaks through 
the experience of centuries? His requirements are 
few and simple, and they are all good. You will 
enjoy the remaining years of life more, you will ac- 
complish more, you will send on to the future more 
happy events to await your coming, if you recognize 
Jesus Christ as your Teacher, and become in all things 
His disciple. Do you question this ? If not, then 
seek Him while He may be found. 



1 82 THE PAST, THE PRESENT, THE FUTURE. 



Then we secure the blessedness of overcoming the 
condemnation of the past by the grace which Jesus 
Christ affords in the present, and the glory which He 
offers for the future. For "there is, therefore, now 
no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." 
Where sin abounds, grace does much more abound. 
Conscious as we are of sin, — and who is not ? — we are 
also conscious that our Saviour has delivered us from 
the threatenings of all sin. For His sake we are 
justified. In His name we are blessed. Through 
Him we secure the peace of God which passeth all 
understanding, 

Therefore, His name is upon our lips, as we close 
this year, and as we look forward to still another. 
The past awaits us in the future ; but He is able by 
His grace to triumph over all its condemnations, and 
having preserved us blameless to present us faultless 
before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. 
Come what may, we are safe in Him. For if in the 
universe there is one abode of perfect purity, of per- 
fect love, of perfect peace, Jesus Christ has that for 
His residence, and He has said : " I go to prepare a 
place for you." " I will come again and receive you 
unto myself, that where I am there ye may be also." 



X. 



DISTRESS WITHOUT DESPAIR * 

" O wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver 
77iefrom the body of 'this deaths " — Rom. vii. 24. 

This is the appeal of intelligence rather than the 
cry of despair. A brave and careful thinker has been 
considering his own spiritual condition. With the 
nerve of a surgeon, he has applied the knife of criticism 
to his thoughts and emotions until he has laid bare 
the centre of life. There he has observed the fatal 
nature of sin, whose manifestations he has witnessed 
in the foibles, the faults, and the crimes of daily con- 
duct. He is depressed, but not hopeless. The work 
of reformation is a necessity, and he believes that 
it may be accomplished. A remedy has been an- 
nounced. If he can secure it he is confident that he 
can overcome all his infirmities and maladies, and en- 
joy the perfect spiritual health which is life eternal. 

It has been suggested that the appeal finds its 



* This and the remaining sermons of the volume are related 
in the endeavor to exhibit the perfect adaptation of the Lord 
Jesus Christ to man's spiritual necessities. 

(183) 



1 84 DISTRESS WITHOUT DESPAIR. 

illustration in the ancient custom of chaining a 
criminal to a dead body. The dead body was chained 
to the ankle of the criminal, who was compelled to 
drag it — a loathsome, decaying mass — as he moved 
from place to place. Under such circumstances, ex- 
istence itself was torture ; and a most pitiful entreaty 
was heard in the cry : " Who shall deliver me from 
the body of this death?" However this may be, 
such a reference would properly express the humilia- 
tion and loathing of Paul as he contemplated his 
sinfulness. He was a noble man. At this period of 
his life he was in the midst of his most intense 
activity. His mind was doing its best work. He was 
the recognized leader of the advanced school of 
Christian thought. His horizon was broad. Jerusalem 
and the ceremonial law could not restrain him. He 
appreciated the universal aspects of Christianity. 
The philosophy of religion which he announced be- 
came the faith of the Church, and is still that faith. 
He was not morbid. There was nothing of the 
ascetic in his character. He never wrote a sentence 
without filling it with truth. " Paul of all others," 
said Colet, one of the Oxford Reformers, " seems to 
me to be a fathomless ocean of wisdom and piety." 
Yet — and this is the thing to be considered — here is 
an emphatic statement from his pen, which declares 
that spiritual help is a necessity — a positive necessity. 
He was conscious of the necessity. With all his 



DISTRESS WITHOUT DESPAIR. 185 

advantages — and they were numerous — he was forced 
to appeal to God for help. 

This experience of the Apostle is calculated to 
raise a question or two in every mind. When such 
a man as Paul places upon record an estimate of his 
own spiritual condition, it is natural that other men 
should inquire if they are better or worse than he. 
If his experience is not exceptional, can we escape 
the conclusion that divine help is a necessity? Do 
we need it ? If so, why ? 

1st. Spiritual help is needed to furnish every man 
a correct estimate of himself. Self-knowledge is most 
difficult of attainment. " In every nature/' George 
Eliot remarks,. " there is a great deal of unmapped 
territory, from which proceed sudden gusts of pas- 
sion and terrific storms of malice." " Who," asks the 
Psalmist, "can understand his errors?" It was the 
painful result of his personal inquiry that led Paul 
to make his appeal for help. He had been alone 
with himself. The discovery of a law in his mem- 
bers warring against the law of his mind, and bring- 
ing him into captivity to the law of sin which was in 
his members, was distressing to him. Here was a 
conflict whose issue was doubtful. Evil and good 
were constantly striving for the mastery. The Apostle 
realized his weakness, and felt that in God alone could 
he find help. Yet his experience, be it noticed, 
was the experience of a godly man. It was reached 



1 86 DISTRESS WITHOUT DESPAIR. 



by him under the illumination of the Divine Spirit. 
Without that illumination he would have been an 
apologist rather than a confessor. His confession of 
sin and of the weakness of sin, came in connection 
with the illumination of the Holy Spirit. Nor is this 
strange. The dwelling into which no ray of sunlight 
enters may be considered decent and comfortable, 
even when its walls are covered with dust and fes- 
tooned with cobwebs. The occupants may resent 
the suggestion that they are living in filth and deg- 
radation. But if that dwelling is flooded with sun- 
light its true condition is demonstrated. They are then 
without excuse. " Search me, O God, and know my 
heart ; try me, and know my thoughts ; and see if 
there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the 
way everlasting," is the only prayer that is consistent 
with sinfulness. We bring ourselves to God in order 
that we may know ourselves. We wish to know the 
worst, in order that we may seek help of Him who 
is mighty to save. It is folly to say, " Peace, peace," 
" when there is no peace "; and " there is no peace, 
saith my God, to the wicked." He is not an honest 
physician who dismisses his patient with the belief 
that he has some trifling disorder, when he knows 
that a malignant disease has begun to destroy him. 
Yet men shrink from the knowledge of the truth con- 
cerning themselves. They are ready enough to join 
in the confession of the Litany, which acknowledges 



DISTRESS WITHOUT DESPAIR. 187 

that we are all miserable sinners ; but when the con- 
fession becomes personal, when it touches individu- 
ally, man by man, the members of a household, there 
is hesitancy and silence. It is very easy to repeat the 
Scriptural expressions — " our righteousnesses are as 
filthy rags," " we are all as an unclean thing," " I am 
a worm, and no man " — that is easy ; but it is, indeed, 
hard to kneel down before God, who searches the 
heart, and in His presence to say, " Be merciful to 
me a sinner." Yet this is the confession of good 
men like Paul ; and we may wonder why it is that 
we do not feel like joining in such a confession. 
'Certainly we must believe that the most bitter, the 
most reproachful expressions that have ever been 
uttered in regard to human nature, have come from 
servants of God whose lives have been very holy. If 
I should wish to secure an accurate estimate of the 
sinfulness of sin, I should not question the inmates 
of brothels or dens of infamy, but I should visit some 
devout saint, whose pilgrimage had found a resting- 
place on the confines of the Better Land. " Fools 
make a mock at sin," while the saints have discovered 
that " sin is exceeding sinful." 

This discovery of the saints, which is made through 
the experience of a holy life, presents two possibili- 
ties — one of woe, and the other of blessedness. The 
possibility of woe is the inevitable attendant of sin. 
Sin means woe. Unless sin is pardoned and cleansed, 



1 88 DISTRESS WITHOUT DESPAIR. 



woe is certain. Leprosy means death. The leper 
must advance to death through the terrible processes 
of his plague, even if he now carries on his cheek the 
healthy beauty of the leper's child. There is no cure 
for leprosy. And sin, if left to itself, if the infallible 
remedy of the Gospel is not used, must terminate in 
the woe unutterable, toward which Jesus pointed 
when He said, " These shall go away into everlasting 
punishment." I can not see, in reason or in the 
Word of God, how sin is to be brought to Heaven, 
nor how a sinner can find his way there, if he rejects 
the salvation of Jesus Christ. The gate is closed 
against him, but he has closed it with his own unwill- 
ing hand : the Lamb's book of life has no record of 
his name, but he would not permit the angel to write 
it when he heard the invitation of his Lord. God is 
not arbitrary. We can never complain, if our fond- 
ness for sin brings us under His final condemnation. 

For there is a glorious possibility which waits upon 
the gracious endeavors of human nature. When we 
accept the help of God we may forsake sin, we may 
secure righteousness, we may advance toward Heaven, 
we may lay hold on eternal life. At once we become 
conscious of another and a spiritual world. There is 
such a world, as real as this world of farms and of 
cities in which we are now abiding for a season ; nay, 
far more real. For " what," one asks,* " is the tran- 

* Dr. Shedd, " Sermons to the Natural Man," p. 20. 



DISTRESS WITHOUT DESPAIR. 189 

sient reality of these objects, these morning vapors, 
compared with the everlasting reality of such beings 
as God and the Soul, of such facts as holiness and 
sin, of such states as Heaven and Hell ? " The out- 
look of repentance and faith is sublime. No heir- 
apparent to a splendid throne ever had such an 
assured prospect as the Christian has. He may look 
on from the things which are seen to the things which 
are not seen ; he may realize that his inheritance is 
incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading, and that it is 
reserved for him ; he may confidently believe that He 
who has begun a good work in him will consummate 
it in the day of Jesus Christ. His experience is pro- 
phetic. The plant of grace is an exotic whose bloom 
witnesses to the reality of a celestial Land. Only 
persevere, Christian, only press on faithfully, only 
prepare for the crown and the robe and the mansion. 
God will meet His promise. Faith will become sight. 
Heaven will prove the happy residence of the Christ- 
like soul. 

2d. To present the ideal of a perfect life, and the 
method of its attainment, there is need of divine 
help. Our ideals are very far from perfect, and even 
if they do arise before our minds we know not how 
to make them real. The wisdom of the past, as ex- 
hibited in the writings of Confucius, Plato, Aristotle, 
or Socrates, has confessed its inability to form a 
practical conception of a perfect human life. It was 



1 9 o DISTRESS WITHOUT DESPAIR. 

reserved for Jesus of Nazareth to announce the only 
complete life that faces with its cordial invitation every 
phase of humanity. We are dependent upon Him for 
our knowledge of this life, as well as for the method 
of its attainment. He has revealed both, and He 
communicates both by the Holy Spirit. 

Here, then, is a real blessing which we all should 
welcome. Jesus of Nazareth appeals to the race. 
There is nothing sectional nor national about Him. 
He stood forth for the world and for the centuries in 
such a manner and with such a purpose, that " every 
man becomes more a man as he becomes more like 
Him, and that every woman becomes more a woman 
as she becomes more like Him." Therefore, as Pres. 
Hopkins* well says: "If by becoming a Christian 
a man does not become more truly man according to 
God's conception of manhood, and as He would have 
him to be, and if in becoming a Christian a woman 
does not come to be more fully woman according to 
God's conception of womanhood, and as He would 
have her to be, then Christianity is a failure. This 
must be so, for Christ being according to His method 
the man, the centre of attraction to the race, that 
law of assimilation must hold by which moral beings 
are changed into the image of that which they con- 
template with pleasure ; and if there were not that 



* " The Scriptural Idea of Man," p. 133. 



DISTRESS WITHOUT DESPAIR. 191 

in Christ which would thus bring to its full perfection 
the proper nature of each, there would be an arrest 
of progress and failure." 

When we contemplate this perfect life as our ideal, 
we instantly realize that it rebukes all other suggested 
ideals, and its rebukes are so emphatic that it virtually 
destroys them. Here, in the perfect life of Jesus of 
Nazareth, the most glorious Being in the universe 
manifests His condescension. The greatness of 
humility is announced, the majesty of self-sacrifice 
is presented, the grandeur of holiness appears. Other 
ideals magnify strength and wealth and beauty. The 
soldier, the merchant, the favorite of the drawing- 
room, these are the common ideals which receive 
popular admiration, and which stimulate youthful 
zeal. But, at a glance, we can appreciate their imper- 
fections. The soldier is Alexander, conquering the 
world, and then conquered by the wine-cup ; or 
Caesar, marching with victorious eagles from conti- 
nent to continent, and unable to subdue his own 
personal ambition ; or Bonaparte, deluging Europe 
with blood, and exhibiting in his household the 
peevishness and petty jealousies of a spoiled child ; 
and the merchant is the man whose gains have made 
his heart stony, whose reputation in the markets is 
simply the report of his bank account, whose increas- 
ing wealth knows not the beautiful companionship of 
increasing charities ; and the favorite of the drawing- 



1 92 DISTRESS WITHOUT DESPAIR. 

room is society's queen for a day or a year, whose 
crown withers and falls as the cheek grows pale, whose 
applause is hushed as a rival appears, whose name is 
forgotten before a new generation is recognized upon 
the stage of life. Alas ! that these should be the 
ideals. They are not grand nor noble : and they 
attract most of us only to deceive. For the ordinary 
soldier will never become a great commander ; and the 
ordinary merchant will never count his fortune in the 
millions ; and the ordinary woman will never win the 
renown of society's queen. Yet we must have our ideals, 
and they must be practical. Life's problem is too im- 
portant, too solemn, to be left for its solution to the 
vain endeavors of an unaided imagination. We are 
not to expect another opportunity. The problem is 
before us, and our solution must be handed in when 
God calls us to render our account. How shall we 
work ? What is to be our conception of life ? Shall 
we solve the problem with Jesus of Nazareth ever 
present, as the ideal of perfection ; or shall we accept 
other ideals ; or shall we neglect the problem entirely, 
and live without any consideration ? We surely can 
not live without any consideration. The present is 
too intimately related to the future. The life that 
now is conditions that which is to come. We must 
take thought. No intelligent man can stand at the 
grave of his friend, or approach the hour of his own 
death, without considering the requirements of the 



DISTRESS WITHOUT DESPAIR. 193 

future. What will be demanded there ? Will our 
common ideals meet the divine approval ? Shall we 
find that power and riches and beauty receive a coro- 
nation ? Does God care for these things as men do ? 
Or is not the conviction borne in upon us irresistibly 
that the pure in heart shall see God, that glory and 
honor and immortality await patient continuance in 
well-doing, that the humble are to be exalted, that the 
life lost in Christ is to be found in Heaven ? I am 
confident that this is a very general conviction. It is 
expressed in the conversation of my fellow-men every 
day ; and especially do I hear it when they speak to 
me of any who have just "passed over to the ma- 
jority, and joined the great nations of the dead." 
Then we eulogize these Christ-like traits, and com- 
mend them heartily as deserving our imitation. 

This perfect ideal is a revelation. God has given it 
in the presentation of His Son. We are dependent 
upon Him for the acquaintance which we have with 
a perfect life. But this is not all. A perfect life 
would not be helpful as an ideal if we should be left 
to our own efforts to realize it. We need to know its 
method as well. How shall this perfect life be reached ? 
We can not lift ourselves up to it. We may as well 
try and clutch the stars. It is far above us and be- 
yond us. Yet may we hope to apprehend it, and 
how ? Simply by regarding the teachings of Christ. 
He has made known the way. The method is His. 
9 



I 9 4 DISTRESS WITHOUT DESPAIR. 

And it is a method so unlike any of the great variety 
of human suggestions that it carries upon its surface 
an evidence of its divine origin. Christ is the centre 
of a redeemed humanity. By the attractive power of 
His love He draws to Himself in penitence for sin 
and in faith in His person, the multitude of His 
disciples. They are united to Him. Then quickly 
and surely His influence is felt in the reformation of 
character. You may question the reality of this in- 
fluence, as many persons have ; but try it and know 
for yourself how strong it is. It can take the worst 
character and subdue every evil passion in it, and then 
make God's angels the occupants of the very dwelling 
in which demons once rioted. His is an approved 
method. It appeals to us all. We really can not 
live without it. Yet in accepting it we confess that 
God has been very gracious, that the help is His, that 
in these last days He has spoken unto us by His Son. 

3d. We need spiritual help to provide a restraining 
and regulating force which is able to secure a perfect 
character. We must have an impulse. Is anything 
more evident than the fact that men fail to express 
their moral convictions ? There are, indeed, very few 
men who do not approve more truths than they ex- 
press. Mere intellectual knowledge is no security 
against wrong-doing. Some of the worst criminals 
of the present day are men who have been carefully 
trained in morals and religion. The Apostle writes 



DISTRESS WITHOUT DESPAIR. 195 

that the devils are sound theologians ; — " They be- 
lieve, and tremble." We may assent to every state- 
ment of an elaborate creed, and yet violate every 
precept of the moral law. It is not easy to do right. 
The recognition of the excellence of Jesus Christ 
and the appreciation of His method do not make a 
man a Christian. A spiritual force is needed. Even 
after the vessel has been provisioned and after her 
destination has been determined, the driving power 
of steam or wind is essential. Let any man try and 
live the Christian life without dependence upon the 
grace of God, and what poor success he will have ! 
He may say to himself : " I understand this perfectly. 
I can be a Christian. I approve the ideal. I will 
accept the method. I will begin at once. Day by 
day I will fight the battle, and I will add one by one 
these virtues and graces to my character." Now 
that is an excellent resolution, if it only includes 
dependence upon the grace of God. But if it does 
not, it is not much stronger than a transparent bub- 
ble. The man will try, and he will seem to be doing 
well. While the undertaking is fresh and new to 
him he will not falter. Presently, however, he will 
feel the shock of some temptation, or he will become 
a little weary, or he will find that his endeavors are 
not well-balanced. Then he has nothing whatever to 
sustain him, nothing to fall back upon. His endeav- 
ors have been mechanical. They have not had any 



196 DISTRESS WITHOUT DESPAIR. 

vitality whatever. He is weary of the whole thing. 
And " the last state of that man is worse than the 
first." He turns back to his old life with a disgust 
for the religion whose blessedness he has never 
known. Thus it is that men mistake the shadow 
for the substance, the symbol for the reality, the 
form for the spirit. I imagine that there are men in 
mature life — not a few — who have passed through an 
experience such as this. They think that they once 
tested the value of religion, and they can hardly be 
persuaded that they made a mistake. Yet so it was. 
A sad mistake ! They really had very little contact 
with the freedom and spirituality of the grace of God 
that bringeth salvation. If they had become pos- 
sessed by that grace, if it had inspired and fed and 
ruled them, they would have rejoiced in its helpful- 
ness, and would never have ceased to depend upon 
it. For the grace of God has manifested its power 
in many ways. It is the grandest of all restraining 
forces. Temptation can not conquer it. The man 
who is sustained by God's grace can meet any temp- 
tation. His strength is not his own. God is with 
him. He can depend upon God. A holy conscious- 
ness is his best help. From his closet of prayer he 
goes out to meet the daily experiences of life, with 
the blessed assurance that " the Lord knoweth how 
to deliver the godly out of temptations." There is 
a divine presence with him. " Thou, God, seest me" 



DISTRESS WITHOUT DESPAIR. 197 

is a realization which he gladly feels. " When thou 
passest through the waters I will be with thee ; and 
through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee ; 
when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not 
be burned ; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee," 
is a promise whose rare meaning opens to his com- 
prehension as the requirements of life demand. He 
is ready to confess with Paul : " By the grace of God 
I am what I am." Ah ! friends, we need this grace. 
Our temptations are numerous. Life is- a constant 
struggle. Shall we not welcome it when it is so 
freely offered us by God ? 

Then grace regulates our activities. A well-round- 
ed character is the consummate expression of grace. 
From the centre to the circumference, grace acts 
with divine energy ; from the heart out upon the life, 
this sacred force manifests its strength and excel- 
lence. We may become symmetrical and comely 
and beautiful, if we do not frustrate the grace of 
God. 

Here is another spiritual necessity. We must be 
aroused and impelled and strengthened and regu- 
lated in life ; and grace is the force which takes pos- 
session of, and thrills, and animates, and subdues, 
and ennobles us. This is the perpetual miracle of 
Christianity — a miracle as real and as evidently di- 
vine as were any of those which brought sight to 
sightless eyes, and hearing to dull ears, and speech 



1 98 DISTRESS WITHOUT DESPAIR. 

to the dumb, and life to the dead. Those miracles 
were expressions of the power of one who could 
speak, and command sight, and hearing, and speech, 
and life ; and these miracles are also expressions of 
the power of one who can even now open the spirit- 
ual intelligence to perceive the glorious realities of 
righteousness and truth ; unstop the spiritual ear to 
catch the faintest whispers of a sacred love ; unloose 
the heart's emotions to sing the praises of Him who 
died ; bring life out of death to triumph and to reign 
in glory evermore. Do we need this blessed divine 
force ? Can we truly live without its gracious in- 
fluence ? 

4th. To announce the consolations and hopes of 
invisible realities, divine help is requisite. How 
eager we are for consolation, and how dependent we 
are upon hope ! Our exposure is constant. No 
Alpine tourist, threatened at every step by the im- 
pending avalanche, is more exposed than we are each 
day. Disaster, reproach, misfortune, sorrow, death 
seem always to be hovering around us, like the 
Bedawins of the Desert, who are detected here and 
there upon the distant hills. The unwary traveller is 
their victim. They dash in upon the peaceful hours 
around the camp-fire, or swoop down upon the line 
of march, or appear at midnight, when sleep has 
brought repose. How often we remark playfully, 
yet sadly, that the unexpected is sure to happen ! 



DISTRESS WITHOUT DESPAIR. igg 

Our plans are thwarted, our health fails, our friends 
die, our lives glide away like the swiftly-flowing 
stream. " The strong men shall bow themselves." 
There is no escape, no exemption. This is the com- 
mon lot of man ; and in one way or another a sense 
of his dependence must be brought home to all. 
Happy is he who early learns the lesson, and ever 
after finds that God is his strength ! 

For God's strength is consolation and hope. He 
consoles us by giving us an understanding of the sig- 
nificance of trial ; by opening to our appreciation, in 
the Holy Spirit's activity, new views of sacred truth ; 
by drawing us closer to Himself ; by making us to 
think more of Heaven. His consolations are not 
weak nor few. They place life in its perspective. 
They bring out the deep quality of life. The out- 
ward man perishes, and the inward man is renewed 
day by day. There is a constant presentation of the 
powers of life to the refining, spiritualizing presence 
of God. As the bleacher shakes the skein, whose wool 
he is seeking to whiten, bringing now one part and 
then another into contact with the rays of the sun, 
so affliction stirs the soul in order that God may 
have complete access to it in every faculty. We 
have watched this sublime work, which secures per- 
fectipn through sufferings. It is rarely beautiful in 
its progress and in its execution. How often we 
remark: "What a lovely character!" when the an- 



DISTRESS WITHOUT DESPAIR. 



swer comes back, " Yes ! she has been a great suf- 
ferer." Affliction alone is not good. Misanthropy 
and despair follow affliction. We become hard and 
complaining if we are often afflicted. Not so, how- 
ever, if affliction and consolation are linked together. 
Then we become submissive and resigned and gentle, 
and we even venture to say with the Psalmist, " It is 
good for me that I have been afflicted," or with Paul, 
" We glory in tribulations also." 

For consolation heralds hope. When God consoles 
us, we have new evidence that God is near ; and if 
God is near, then may we hope. God and hope, that 
is true ; no God and no hope, is not that also true ? 
I think that it is. I can not see how the man who 
has no hope in God can contemplate the future with 
any satisfaction. He is in the great procession which 
is hastening on to the grave. He can not stop. One 
day he must die. Then what is to become of him ? 
He may say that we do not know, that we can not 
know, that we need not try to know. But that say- 
ing is hopeless. There is no light in it. " Whither, 
oh ! Pilot, are you conducting us through this fog 
and darkness? What port is before us, and where 
shall we land ? " And the Pilot answers, " I do not 
know, I can not- know, and I do not try to know." 
Then the passenger is silent because he feels that he 
has little hope. We can not, in that way, meet the 
anxious questioning of the immortal soul. We must 



DISTRESS WITHOUT DESPAIR. 



have hope ; and God gives us hope in Christ. He 
is the earnest of another life. His very presence is 
an unanswerable argument in favor of immortality. 
We have His testimony to convince us that there is 
a celestial country. If we believe His words, we shall 
have no anxiety, but a most comfortable hope. 

" If my immortal Saviour lives, 
Then my immortal life is sure ; 
His word a firm foundation gives ; 
Here may I build, and rest secure." 

We have thus inquired in several directions respect- 
ing our need of God's help. We have found that 
without it we can not properly know ourselves, our 
condition, our danger, and our opportunity, nor can 
we form a conception of the ideal of a perfect life 
whose method will also be obscure. We can not, 
still further, live without the grace which must arouse 
our endeavors, and then restrain and regulate our 
characters ; and we shall, indeed, be poor if we have 
none of God's consolations, none of His hopes to 
meet our inevitable sorrows and to brighten the 
shadows of death. Without God's help must not 
each one of us exclaim, as Paul did, " O wretched 
man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body 
of this death ? " There is no escape for us. Life is 
a mystery, and the mystery becomes tragic as its 
plot unfolds. 

9* 



202 DISTRESS WITHOUT DESPAIR. 

There is a solution. God does not mock us. We 
may rejoice in Him. He is never distant. His help 
is pledged. Oh ! let us welcome it ; and with its 
genial, holy assistance, let us undertake to solve this 
problem which is intensely personal. 



XI 



JESUS OF NAZARETH.— HIS PLACE IN 
HISTORY. 

"Philip Jindeth Nathanael and saith unto him, 
' We have found Him, of whom Moses in the 
law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of 
Nazareth, the Son of Joseph.' " — John i. 45. 

PHILIP and Nathanael were devout men. A sin- 
cere interest in religion strengthened their friendship. 
They were waiting anxiously for " the consolation of 
Israel." With ripe intelligence and responsive spirit- 
uality, they were ready to consider the claims of the 
Messiah whenever He should appear. The need of 
divine help was appreciated. It was not necessary 
that they should argue themselves into the convic- 
tion that God is able to give a revelation. That con- 
viction had taken firm hold upon them, and they 
frequently dwelt with satisfaction upon the evidences 
of His love, which the inspired writers of the Hebrews 
had recorded. 

The enthusiasm of John the Baptist's ministry 

reached them in their Galilean homes, and led one of 

them to visit the fearless preacher of righteousness. 

(203) 



204 JESUS OF NAZARETH. 

Philip — the more impulsive temperament — went 
down to the fords of the Jordan, where great crowds 
of people were under the influence of a genuine re- 
vival of religion : while Nathanael — somewhat more 
contemplative and retiring — continued to meditate 
in the vicinity of his own village upon the signifi- 
cance of these unusual events. 

Meanwhile Jesus of Nazareth received baptism, 
and was formally recognized, as " the Lamb of God, 
which taketh away the sin of the world." Certain 
acquaintances of Philip were among the first converts. 
From them he heard of this new Teacher, whom 
they had already accepted as the Messiah. His re- 
ligious nature was prepared to respond to the invita- 
tion, which soon secured his cheerful obedience and 
made him a disciple. Then as the journey was con- 
tinued — for they were on their way to Galilee — Na- 
thanael was discovered in the shade of a fig-tree, 
where he was resting for meditation, or prayer, or 
study. Hastening ahead of his companions, Philip 
surprised his friend with the announcement that he 
had found the Messiah — the Messiah so eagerly an- 
ticipated, so exalted in the imagination of every 
pious Hebrew, so certain to bring deliverance to the 
Chosen People. Nathanael hesitated. He could not 
bring himself to accept the Son of Joseph, the hum- 
ble carpenter of Nazareth, as the fulfilment of the 
sublime prophecies which God had revealed. He 



JESUS OF NAZARETH. 



205 



wished to ask a question or two. The faith of Philip 
might after all be only credulity. He demanded 
evidence. Yet he was a truly generous man. He 
did not reject his friend's appeal. There was no 
ridicule nor contempt in his attitude. He went to 
meet the Messiah, whom Philip commended ; and in 
His presence, he quickly learned that God's response 
to the Messianic predictions is a perfect life. As he 
looked into the eyes of the Son of Joseph, he saw 
the Son of God, and his quiet, contemplative spirit 
rose to the height of a splendid confession, when he 
exclaimed : " Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God, Thou 
art the King of Israel." 

The announcement of Philip, with his invitation, 
must be the counsel of the Christian to every inquir- 
ing soul. For religious inquiry is met by the life of 
Jesus of Nazareth. When we become conscious of 
our need of divine help, we are assured that divine 
help will reach us through Him. He is the Mediator. 
" For it pleased the Father that in Him should all 
fulness dwell "; and " in Him dwelleth all the fulness 
of the Godhead bodily"; and " of His fulness have all 
we received, and grace for grace." It is essential, 
therefore, that we should recognize His presence, that 
we should believe in His life, that we should become 
familiar with His story. Some of us are in the po- 
sition of Philip and Nathanael, who were waiting for 
the appearance of the Messiah. Shall we not wel- 



206 



JESUS OF NAZARETH. 



come Jesus of Nazareth as the Saviour in whom we 
may trust ? 

1st. The man who is convinced that he needs 
divine help, should be directed to Jesus Christ. 
When Paul and Silas heard the plaintive appeal of 
the Philippian jailor, who was sharply convicted of 
his sinfulness, they urged him to believe on the Lord 
Jesus Christ. Their reply was prompt and decisive. 
In one way he could hope to find pardon ; and that 
was by accepting the mercy of the Saviour, whom 
Paul and Silas had learned to love. The Scripture 
narrative says that he accepted their counsel, that he 
sought the pardon of Jesus Christ, and that he then 
found "joy and peace in believing." His was a nota- 
ble experience. So well defined, so clear, and so 
true to the promise of Jesus, who said : " Come unto 
me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will 
give you rest." On the Day of Pentecost, a sermon 
of Peter led many hundreds of earnest Jews to cry 
out in alarm, and to inquire : " Men and brethren, 
what shall we do ? " They were not children, for 
they were mature enough to be pilgrims ; they were 
not weak and sentimental men, for they required con- 
siderable argument to persuade them that the spirit- 
ual emotion which they witnessed in the disciples 
was not due to an excess of wine. Yet when they 
were pricked in their hearts by the solemn truths of 
Peter's sermon, they were encouraged and comforted, 



JESUS OF NAZARETH. 2 0J 

as the Apostle pointed them to Jesus Christ. On 
another occasion, he declared to the Sanhedrin that 
Jesus Christ occupies a position which is unique, say- 
ing plainly : " Neither is there salvation in any other: 
for there is none other name under Heaven given 
among men, whereby we must be saved." The same 
conviction governs the writer of the Epistle to the 
Hebrews, when he records the blessed truth that 
Jesus Christ is " able also to save them to the utter- 
most that come unto God by Him "; and John, the 
beloved disciple, is of the same mind, for his Epistles 
contain many expressions of abiding confidence in 
the ability of the Saviour; "The blood of Jesus 
Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin." " This is 
the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, 
and this life is in His Son." 

With similar confidence the Christian life of the 
centuries has met the unbelief of the world. The 
best results have always attended the commendation 
of Jesus Christ. Infidels have scoffed at such a refer- 
ence of the spiritual anxieties and fears of mankind ; 
and yet the reference has been made, and is still made, 
and the desired blessing has been known. The teach- 
ing of experience is emphatic on this point. The 
adaptation of Jesus Christ is established. Just as we 
have come to believe that light is adapted to the eye, 
and sound to the ear, and oxygen to the lungs, and 
truth to the intellect, and friendship to the heart, so 



208 



JESUS OF NAZARETH. 



have we reached the conviction that Jesus Christ 
meets and satisfies the deep religious longings of the 
soul. A child born and reared in the depths of some 
dark cavern would not appreciate your descriptions 
of the glorious sunlight, of the song of birds, of the 
tonic of the atmosphere. He has eyes, but he can not 
be said to see ; he has ears, but he can not be said to 
hear ; he has lungs, but he can not be said to breathe. 
Let him come to the surface, and stand upon the solid 
earth, and behold the beauty of nature, and enjoy the 
singing of birds, and fill his lungs with the delicious 
air of the hills, — then may he know how carefully 
God has adapted one part of His creation to another. 
Thus, as Dr. Channing once remarked,* experience 
teaches us that there is " a consciousness of the adap- 
tation of Christianity to our noblest faculties; a con- 
sciousness of its exalting and consoling influence ; of 
its power to confer the true happiness of human 
nature, to give that peace which the world can not 
give : which assures us that this is not of earthly 
origin, but a ray of Everlasting Light, a stream from 
the fountain of Heavenly Wisdom and Love." This 
is our best intelligence on a subject whose importance 
is vital to us. We meet one another with these 
spiritual needs. Christianity does not create them. 
They are innate. Just because we are members of 



* Works, Vol. III., p. 135. 



JESUS OF NAZARETH. 209 

the human race, we have them. What shall we do ? 
To whom shall we turn ? We can not laugh them 
down. They are too firmly established within us. 
We dare not mock them with frivolity. They are 
too solemn. We can not neglect them. They will 
not cease to make themselves heard. How then shall 
we treat them ? What shall we say ? Will education 
answer? Will science and art and literature quiet 
the awakened conscience ? Will the names of Hum- 
boldt and Cuvier, of Raphael and Leonardo, of Milton 
and Shakespeare cheer the inevitable gloom of a 
dying hour? Has not the name of Jesus Christ fre- 
quently brought peace to king and to peasant, to 
philosopher and to child, as the realities of eternity 
have oppressed the soul ? Yes ! we are safe with this 
counsel. I do not hesitate to direct you to Jesus 
Christ. If you find Him, you find hope and comfort 
and joy, which will sustain you always. 

2d. Jesus Christ occupies a position in the world 
which is braced by prophecy and history. I believe 
that there are many persons who have an exceed- 
ingly vague conception of the reality of the life of 
Jesus Christ. To them He seems remote, and even 
mythical. They are sorry that He is not now upon 
the earth, teaching in some neighboring town, so that 
they could go to Him, and look up into His face, and 
hear His voice, and thus become convinced that He 
is a Saviour. The fact that He was in Judea and 



210 



JESUS OF NAZARETH. 



Galilee more than eighteen hundred years ago does 
not appear to satisfy 'the demands of faith. Yet He 
said to the doubting Thomas, whose faith was de- 
pendent almost entirely upon sight : " Because thou 
hast seen me thou hast believed : blessed are they 
that have not seen and yet have believed." The faith 
of sight is good, but the faith of testimony is better. 
A Saviour who is present to grasp the hand of the 
despairing Peter, and thus to rescue that ardent 
disciple from a watery grave, is a helpful Saviour; but 
a Saviour who is invisible to the eye, " whom having 
not seen ye love, in whom though now ye see Him 
not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable 
and full of glory," is really more helpful. For He, 
by the agency of the Holy Spirit, is " a Christ whom 
no distance can remove, whom the sick man can have 
in his chamber, the prisoner in his dungeon, the exile 
in his place of banishment, the martyr in his fires : 
present to the heart, more present than looks or 
words, present where the eye is blind and can not see 
Him, and the ear is deaf and can not hear Him speak." 
This is the position which He desires to occupy. He 
is not a local divinity. His aid is not limited by time 
nor place. " I am with you alway, even unto the end 
of the world," is the promise which greets the aspira- 
tion of each individual soul in the Arctic regions or 
at the Tropics, in the first century or in the last. I 
once asked that most devout of our American poets 



JESUS OF NAZARETH. 



211 



— Dr. Ray Palmer — to describe to me the state of 
feeling under which he composed his hymns ; and he 
answered promptly that a vivid consciousness of the 
reality of sacred things took possession of him, and 
that then the hymns appeared to form themselves. 
As an illustration of his thought, he repeated a few 
lines of the hymn beginning : 

"Jesus, these eyes have never seen 

That radiant form of Thine, 
The veil of sense hangs dark between 

Thy blessed face and mine. 
I see Thee not, I hear Thee not, 

Yet art Thou oft with me ; 
And earth hath ne'er so dear a spot 

As where I meet with Thee." 

" Now, that hymn," he continued, " as I was meditat- 
ing upon our dear Lord's sympathy, in the quiet of 
my study, came into my mind, and I had nothing to 
do but to place it upon paper." We may almost envy 
the good man his possession of such a vivid conscious- 
ness, and yet we are not to despair of equalling it 
ourselves. For it is within our reach. We may en- 
joy this spiritual estimate of the Saviour, and then 
He will no longer be remote and mythical to us, but 
we shall find Him " a very present help in trouble." 

How shall we feel our way back into the presence 
of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Joseph? What 
silken cord can we find which will conduct us through 
the intricate labyrinth of living and dead civilizations, 



212 



JESUS OF NAZARETH. 



until we reach the imperial years of ancient Rome 
and walk the streets of old Jerusalem ? Can we hope 
to obtain a clear estimate of the life which Mary nur- 
tured and Pilate surrendered to crucifixion, whose 
lustre has brightened with each passing century and 
whose influence has raised humanity to a position 
which is prophetic of a glory still reserved ? 

There is in the world at present, an institution 
which is called the Church, and a collection of writ- 
ings which is called the Holy Scriptures. There is, 
also, a distinctive mode of life which bears the name 
Christian. No one will question either of these state- 
ments. One end of a threefold cord is within our 
reach — the Church is a reality, the Bible is a reality, 
Christian life is a reality. And these three realities 
are as intimately related as the three threads of a 
cord. They are all of a very early origin. Yester- 
day will not explain them, nor the day before. They 
were in the world when Charlemagne received from 
Leo III. the iron crown of the Western Empire, 
and even when Constantine established his capital on 
the shores of the Bosphorus. By the consent of all 
intelligent historians they were known when Nero 
made Rome hideous by his debaucheries and crimes ; 
and even when Tiberius ended his miserable career 
at Misenum in the year 37, there was a church, and 
there were Christians to witness to the reality of 
Jesus Christ the Saviour. Then, too, a portion of 



JESUS OF NAZARETH. 



213 



the Bible — the Old Testament — was in existence ; 
and evangelists and apostles were soon to announce 
the New Testament, as the Gospels and Epistles, 
which now constitute a sacred canon, came from their 
hands. I have led you along a beaten path in our 
progress over the centuries to this very early date. 
The best scholarship is our guide. We can meet a 
Church and Christians in the year 37, and a Church 
and Christians and a large part of the New Testa- 
ment before the death of Nero in the year 68. 

Our guide, moreover, has conducted us across the 
broad Atlantic, between the Pillars of Hercules, over 
the blue waters of the Mediterranean, and into the 
country of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. If we must 
look to Runnymede to discover the beginnings of 
English liberty ; if we must look to Wittenberg to 
locate the beginnings of the Reformation ; if we must 
go to Philadelphia to see the cradle of American In- 
dependence, we must visit the Holy Land to find the 
birth-place of Him whose presence is the only intelli- 
gent explanation of the Church, of Christian life, of 
the New Testament. The land and the Book agree 
perfectly. With an open Bible the traveller visits the 
scenes, ever to be memorable through their associa- 
tion with the life. The Jordan stills flows tumult- 
ously from its fountain spring on Hermon to the dull 
and lifeless waters of the bitter sea ; while Hermon 
still lifts its snow-capped head above the heights of 



214 JESUS OF NAZARETH. 

Lebanon to guard, as a lonely sentinel, the interests 
of hill and dale. Nazareth nestles as of old on the 
side of a peaceful, gentle slope ; and Bethlehem wel- 
comes her shepherds as in days when David kept the 
flock of Jesse. Olivet greets each sunrise, and from 
its summit sends tidings, in the glory of a bright 
illumination, that Jerusalem may prepare to honor 
the coming day ; and the Holy City preserves, with 
an unconscious fidelity, many of the localities which 
the reverence of devotion will always cherish. The 
land is a study. We may rebuild its towns and 
cities, repeople its dwellings and streets, and move 
among the men and women who were the compan- 
ions of Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. 

For He, we may rest assured, must explain the 
origin of the Church, of the Christian life, the New 
Testament. " Shall we be told," asked Theodore 
Parker,* " such a man never lived ; the whole story 
is a lie ? Suppose that Plato and Newton never 
lived ; that their story is a lie ? But who did their 
works and thought their thought ? It takes a New- 
ton to forge a Newton. What man could have fabri- 
cated a Jesus? None but a Jesus." We may be- 
lieve then that He lived. Indeed, we can not help 
believing this sublime fact. Interpret the New Tes- 
tament as we may, sift its narratives with the violence 



* "Discourse of Religion," p. 294. 



JESUS OF NAZARETH. 2 1 5 

of a most reckless criticism, and we must still believe 
that He lived. The main facts of His life are gener- 
ally accepted. He was here among men. A life, rich 
and bountiful, had its residence in Judea and Gali- 
lee. The simple narratives of the evangelists acquaint 
us with its principal events. For, as the author of 
the familiar essay on " The Christ of History,"* re- 
marked many years ago, " It is abundantly demon- 
strable that the evangelists, instead of embodying a 
conception of their own minds, must have witnessed 
the life which they describe, never could have con- 
ceived it unless they had first witnessed it, and were 
able to represent it in the manner they have done, 
only because it had actually passed under their imme- 
diate and frequent observation." 

While Joseph of Nazareth, with Mary, his espoused 
wife, were in Bethlehem, the child Jesus was born. 
They had gone to their ancestral town because they 
were of the house and lineage of David, to be en- 
rolled in a census which had been ordered by the 
Emperor Augustus. Jewish law, to which the Ro- 
mans paid respect whenever they could do so without 
inconvenience, insisted that names should be entered 
in the respective family towns. Thus it came to pass 
that a proclamation of a heathen ruler combined with 
the national zeal of a God-fearing race to make pos- 



* Page 24. 



2l6 



JESUS OF NAZARETH. 



sible the fulfilment of an ancient prophecy. For 
Micah had designated Bethlehem as the birth-place 
of the Messiah ; and the Jews interpreted his proph- 
ecy aright when they insisted that no other town 
could lay claim to this distinction. Soon after His 
birth the babe was carried to Egypt to escape the 
wrath of King Herod, who had learned that great 
expectations were associated with the birth of a babe 
in Bethlehem. Then, when Herod was dead, Joseph 
and Mary returned with Jesus, and made their home 
in Nazareth, where the boy " increased in wisdom 
and stature and in favor with God and man." There 
is no reason for believing that He was unlike other 
boys, except in the perfect freshness, purity, and 
beauty of His young life. He was with His mother, 
whose heart was filled with strange hopes concern- 
ing Him, and with Joseph, whose daily toil brought 
him into contact with the tools and the workmanship 
of a carpenter's shop. Theirs was a religious home. 
The Holy Scriptures were explained, and the devout 
psalms of the Hebrews were sung. Questions were 
encouraged and answers were patiently given. If 
there were other children there, and such seems to 
have been the case, then Jesus had the companion- 
ship of brothers and sisters ; and thus, even in His 
early life, His presence was expressive of the sacred- 
ness of the family. Nazareth had its synagogue, 
and the household of Joseph could not have neg- 



JESUS OF NAZARETH. 2 1 7 

lected the public worship of their fathers. The great 
festivals in Jerusalem also received their respectful 
attention ; and at twelve years of age the boy was 
permitted to join the caravan of pilgrims who went 
up to the Holy City to the Passover. There He 
seemed to discover a wonderful capacity for religion. 
He drew to Himself, with magnetic power, the learned 
doctors of the Temple, who were astonished at His 
understanding and answers. But He was not unduly 
forward. Quietly submitting Himself to His mother, 
He went back to Nazareth, where eighteen years of 
His important life were passed in simple, humble 
labor. He entered the carpenter's shop, and did 
His work, day by day, for the people of the village. 
This — let us not fail to grasp the thought — was a most 
instructive part of His career. Greatness, surpass- 
ing greatness, is His by universal consent. He out- 
ranks the most illustrious of the sons of men. Yet 
He passed a large part of His life upon the earth in 
the ordinary work of a mechanic. He was a poor 
man up to the last, without dwelling and without 
purse. Thus He has ennobled labor and dignified 
poverty, and given His approval to a quiet, unobtru- 
sive life, which meets each day's duties in the fear of 
God. 

We can see Him at the age of thirty, as He bids His 
mother " good-bye," and starts out upon His sublime 
mission. There is a stir in the land. John the Bap- 
10 



218 



JESUS OF NAZARETH. 



tist has produced a profound impression. Jesus is 
on His way to the Jordan, where He is instantly 
recognized as of a superior quality, as possessing 
higher claims. "As when some unknown dread 
checks the flight of the eagle, and makes him settle 
with hushed scream and drooping plumage on the 
ground, so before ' the royalty of inward happiness,' 
before the purity of sinless life, the wild prophet of 
the desert becomes like a submissive and timid child." 
Such is Canon Farrar's beautiful comment upon the 
scene at the Baptism. From the Jordan, He goes 
into the Desert, from which He comes forth after 
forty days completely equipped for His work. He has 
"been tried, and has conquered. He is now ready to 
teach and to preach, to suffer and to die. The busy 
weeks group themselves rapidly into months, and the 
months soon form the three years, which are the 
limit of His earthly mission. He went from place to 
place, instructing the people in righteousness, and 
healing the sick, and relieving distress in many ways. 
Consciously He met the prediction of Isaiah, who 
wrote of the Messiah : " The Spirit of the Lord is 
upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to 
preach good tidings unto the meek ; He hath sent me 
to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to 
the captives, and the opening of the prison to them 
that are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of 
the Lord." As His influence extended, the enmity of 



JESUS OF NAZARETH. 219 

the Jews, whose venerated traditions He weakened 
or destroyed, became violent in its opposition. They 
could not endure His presence. At every step they 
opposed Him. Soon the cross and the sepulchre put 
an end to His activity ; and His name, covered with 
reproaches, was the ridicule and scorn of Jerusalem. 
Then to His disciples came the helpful, inspiring 
consciousness that He had arisen from the dead. 
This they believed with an intensity of faith, which 
no persecutions could weaken, no hardships destroy, 
no time efface. It became the faith of Christendom, 
quickening intelligence, enlarging activity, sustaining 
perilous undertakings in the interests of humanity, 
undermining old forms of superstition, and illumin- 
ing the horizon of each century with a celestial ra- 
diance. We accept it now ; and while we believe in 
"Jesus and the resurrection," we can speak to every 
anxious, troubled thought with a divine assurance ; 
we can guide every perplexing inquiry with a divine 
leadership ; we can soothe the agony of death and 
relieve the gloom of the grave with a divine hope. 
The fact — so grandly evident — that Jesus Christ has 
appeared is the basis of our strength, our courage, 
our endurance, and our peace. 

And this fact stands not alone like some solitary 
minaret, tall, slender, and unsustained. Both proph- 
ecy and history brace it securely — prophecy, which 
has its records through many centuries, and which 



220 



JESUS OF NAZARETH. 



demands a fact like this ; and history, whose great 
foundation-stones are the events which are asso- 
ciated with this fact. It may seem hard to believe, 
and yet it is harder not to believe. Criticism is easy, 
and often cheap, but no criticism may hope to re- 
move from the moral world this central Sun of 
Righteousness, whose control is evident in the in- 
creasing order of the spheres. 

3d. Prophecy and history unite in commending 
Jesus Christ as the Mediator, through whom divine 
help is secured by man. We are not careful to ex- 
plain, now and here, how this help reaches us through 
the mediation of Jesus Christ. The fact alone is for 
present emphasis. You and I need help. We need 
it sorely. We are directed to Jesus Christ. He is 
evidently a real personage. Through Him God's 
help is to reach us. For Paul, who is an acknowl- 
edged leader of Christian thought, has said : " There 
is one God, and one mediator between God and men, 
the man Christ Jesus." His mediation touches us 
on the one hand, and God on the other. When we 
submit to Him, we discover the blessedness of par- 
don, of sustaining grace, of a life which takes hold 
upon eternity. And all this is divine. Meeting the 
approved conditions, we secure the desired result. 
A holy life, strong and capable, solicits us. That 
life is within our reach. We may behold its excel- 
lence. We may consider its method. We may ac- 



JESUS OF NAZARETH. 



221 



cept its aid. Prophecy and history unite in giving us 
a life. What gift so excellent ? A life. What gift 
so encouraging? A life. What gift so divine? Help 
is sent us by God through a life. A life, which was 
lived upon our own plane ; a life of simple, familiar 
virtues and graces ; a life of absolute perfection which 
knows no decay, only expansion forever ; a life whose 
service is self-sacrifice, and whose honor is humility ; 
a life which confronts with its rebukes every form of 
prodigality, and which cheers with its promises faith- 
fulness of every form ; a life whose daily blessing is 
the divine approval, and whose ultimate coronation 
is perfect resemblance to the Lord. Oh ! what a 
gift is this! Can we reject it? Are we willing to 
plod along in our own living without a glimpse of 
this sacred life, without a purpose to secure its ex- 
cellence ? God forbid ! We are, indeed, a favored 
people. Our opportunity is sublime. We should 
embrace it. For we may fail of riches — most men 
do ; and of honors, there are few who gain them ; 
and of ease, life may be toil to the end ; and of 
health, sickness may be our heritage ; and of pleas- 
ure, sorrow may never leave us while we continue 
here ; but oh ! let us not fail of this life which God 
offers to us through Jesus Christ. 

And to this end, begin now, in humble penitence 
for sin and simple confidence in the grace provided, 
and live forever with Jesus Christ as Saviour ; for He 
is Prophet, Priest, and King. 



222 



JESUS OF NAZARETH. 



My friends, when Philip addressed Nathanael and 
urged him to inquire personally of Jesus, Christian 
history had hardly written the first sentence of the 
record which now fills the libraries of the world. A 
day or two of a sacred friendship — that was all — was 
back of his entreaty. Yet Nathanael regarded the 
invitation, and his inquiry became his salvation. We 
come now with a similar urgency to commend to you 
a Saviour who has approved Himself in all parts of 
the world, in every generation, unto every age, class, 
and condition. Will you not look to Him as a Saviour, 
and seek the help that you need, through His gra- 
cious intercession ? 



XII. 



THE GRACIOUS WORDS.— WHAT WERE 
THEY? 

"And all bare Him witness, and wondered at the 
gracious words which proceeded out of His 
mouth." — Luke iv. 22. 

When Jesus entered the synagogue of Nazareth 
on the Sabbath of His memorable discourse, He was 
instantly recognized as the Rabbi whose teaching 
had been received with enthusiasm in many parts of 
Galilee. Since He had gone out from His home, He 
had visited John the Baptist and had spent forty days 
in the Desert ; He had selected a few disciples and 
had exhibited His power at Cana, where water was 
converted into wine ; He had made an impression 
upon the Jews of Jerusalem, to whom He had for- 
mally presented Himself as the Messiah, and He had 
continued His labors in Judea after His Messianic 
claims had been rejected by the leaders of the Chosen 
People ; He had returned through Samaria into His 
own country, where His voice had been heard in 
many synagogues. With an established reputation, 
with a recognized popularity, He came back to Naza- 

(223) 



224 THE GRACIOUS WORDS. 

reth, and promptly responded to the desire of His 
townsmen that He should address them. The roll 
of the prophecy of Isaiah, which contained the second 
Scripture lesson of the day, was placed in His hands, 
and after He had selected a passage in what is now 
known as the 6 1st chapter of that sublime revelation, 
He began to read. When He had read but one sen- 
tence of the prophecy, He paused, rolled up the 
parchment, handed it to the attendant, and sat down. 
These actions were indicative of His intention to 
speak. Instantly every eye was fixed upon Him. 

To the amazement of His hearers, He said that the 
venerated prophecy, which so evidently anticipated 
the appearance of the Messiah, was fulfilled by His 
presence, and that it was His mission to bless the 
poor, to cheer the afflicted, to give liberty to the 
captive, and knowledge to the ignorant, and freedom 
to the slave, and thus to introduce the year of jubilee. 
These startling announcements were followed by an 
exposition of the truth of Redemption, which led 
that audience of Nazarenes through many varieties 
of intense feeling. At first they were charmed by 
His manner; then they became curious as they ob- 
served His composure, and associated His claims 
with His very humble station in life ; soon they 
wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out 
of His mouth ; then they began to whisper questions 
to one another, which were expressive of jealousy ; 



THE GRACIOUS WORDS. 2 2$ 

at last their wrath over His assumptions could not 
be restrained. They denounced Him openly. With 
the vehemence of a mob they rushed upon Him, 
drove Him out of the synagogue, hurried Him to a 
rocky eminence near by, and prepared to cast Him 
down headlong. But He escaped their violence, and 
crossing the hills to Capernaum established His resi- 
dence in that friendly city. 

This sermon, preached in the synagogue of Naza- 
reth, announced the idea which He continued to 
elaborate and enforce. What that idea is, and what its 
applications are, may be known by any disciple who 
studies the teaching of Jesus. The record of that 
teaching, as it is found in the Gospels, is easily under- 
stood. Within the compass of a small tract, His 
words may all be contained. An hour or two will 
suffice for their reading. But no one can estimate 
their influence ; no one can sound their depths ; no 
one can measure their expansive possibilities. They 
have met each new life with a pertinent lesson ; they 
have addressed each new social condition with their 
counsel and hope ; they have exhibited an adaptation 
to every phase of human need ; they carry the prom- 
ise of everlasting blessedness in the perfection of 
eternal life. What, then, is this important teaching? 
What did He say? 

1st. In His teaching, Jesus Christ insisted upon 

the necessity of a personal union with God. The 
10* 



226 



THE GRACIOUS WORDS. 



conception of this sacred union was the central idea 
of His teaching. He recognized the fact, so pain- 
fully evident, that there has been a rebellion which 
has separated God and man. Man draws away from, 
and defies the authority of, God. He does not wish 
to retain God in his knowledge. If he could have 
his own way, he would dispense with God entirely. 
" The carnal mind is enmity against God." How 
frequently endeavors have been put forth to con- 
struct a theory of creation, of natural and moral 
order, which shall contain no recognition of God ! 
How often a bitter resistance is encountered when 
the authority of God is emphasized and the de- 
mands of His Word are pressed upon the conscience ! 
Yet why should man hate God, why should man 
shrink back from God, why should man hesitate to 
welcome cordially every overture on the part of God ? 
God is infinitely glorious, and the truest dignity of 
life must be associated with the blessedness of receiv- 
ing Him. The question should never arise — and but 
for sin it would never arise — as to my willingness to 
be the friend of God ; for there is another question 
of far greater moment to me, which brings me to 
inquire as to God's willingness to be my friend. Sin 
alone can answer for this unbelief. But for the sepa- 
rating, repelling influence of sin, every man would 
turn to God as naturally and promptly as the flowers 
turn to the sun. Sin, however, awakens prejudices, 



THE GRACIOUS WORDS. 227 

misunderstandings, bitterness of feeling, so that the 
gracious Father of us all is neglected and even hated 
by the children whom He blesses every day. How 
many men there are upon our streets — good men as 
the estimate of the world goes — who never recognize 
God in prayer or praise ! They are engrossed with 
the cares of business. The consciousness of God has 
gone out of their lives. They will tell you what 
they do not believe about God, and yet they seldom 
arrange the thoughts which are indicative of a posi- 
tive belief in His power and love. Surely they are 
not united to God ! Whatever advantages may be 
realized from union with Him, they are unable to say 
that they possess them. Life moves sw r iftly to its 
close ; opportunity ceases to extend its invitations. 
The last word is spoken. The realities of an eternal 
state must be met without hope in God. Why should 
this be so ? What excuse can be given for neglect 
like this ? Is it not a fearful evidence of the sinful- 
ness of sin that goodness and purity and holiness and 
love in God are rejected by a weak, feeble mortal, 
who is dependent in every hour of his life, and who 
is rapidly hastening to the tomb ? 

With an insight which itself is an argument in 
favor of His divine origin, Jesus Christ pointed to 
this estrangement between God and man as the 
deep-seated cause of all present difficulties. He did 
not grope His way to this profound estimate. It was 



228 



THE GRACIOUS WORDS. 



announced at the beginning of His public ministry. 
When He entered upon His career He began to pro- 
claim the presence of the kingdom of God, and the 
consequent necessity of repentance. This kingdom, 
it has been said, " is the reign of God in men, when the 
Father of minds shall be known, loved, and revered 
by His children. It is the reign of righteousness, 
purity, truth, love, and peace, the universal reception 
and dominion among men of all true, just, holy, 
generous, and divine principles. It is the highest 
stage of religious, moral, intellectual, social, and in- 
dividual cultivation. It is the noblest development 
possible on this earth of all the attributes and capa- 
bilities of humanity. It is spiritual victory after the 
battle of thousands of ages. It is the triumph of 
good and of God over moral and physical evil." 

In His prayer of intercession, Jesus Christ evidently 
reviews His work. The leading features of that work 
are enumerated as the basis, or ground, of the plea 
which He presents on behalf of all Christians. We 
discover, at once, His central idea. Again and again 
in the course of the prayer He refers to the union 
which He has established between God and man, as 
well as to His desire that this union may extend until 
it shall include a countless multitude, " that they all 
may be one ; as Thou, Father, art in me, and I in 
Thee, that they also may be one in us ; that the world 
may believe that Thou hast sent me." 



THE GRACIOUS WORDS. 229 

To make this sublime idea a possibility, it was 
essential that man should be made acquainted with 
God. God's character must be known, God's pur- 
pose must be appreciated, God's love must be an- 
nounced, if man is to be united to God. For no man 
of himself imagines that God really wishes to be his 
friend, that God is willing to accept him just as he is, 
that God is seeking him with an intensity of solici- 
tude which is the marvel of revelation. The prev- 
alent feeling is that a man must fix himself up to 
appear before God, that he must make himself better, 
that he must do something to merit the divine favor. 
Jesus Christ brushed away every one of those misty 
conceptions about God, to reveal the clear outlines of 
the Father's benignant countenance. He exhibited 
God's interest in a sinful race, and made very evident 
God's desire to have man united to Him. He gave 
the assurance of God's willingness to impart His own 
life to the soul of the penitent believer. He taught 
the language of a prayer, whose first sentence, " Our 
Father, which art in Heaven," is the announce- 
ment of splendid possibilities. He brought God out 
of the dimness of obscurity into the reality of daily 
life, from the hills and the caves and the oceans, where 
the superstitions of mythology had fixed the resi- 
dences of many divinities, into the cities, the homes, 
and the hearts of our race, from the attitude of a 
dreaded, avenging Nemesis to that of a considerate 



230 THE GRACIOUS WORDS. 

loving friend. God stands with outstretched hands 
of welcome, with tender entreaties of solicitude, with 
gentle persuasiveness in every appeal, to call to Him- 
self a guilty, weak, and helpless race. We have the 
assurance that He desires us ; and we have the added 
assurance that we are capable of meeting Him, of 
enjoying His love, of being thus united to Him. 

All this is included in the teaching of Jesus Christ. 
He has made us acquainted with God, and He has 
made us acquainted with ourselves. Then He has 
still further explained the method of this most desir- 
able union, by what Pie has said respecting His own 
death. For that death has removed every obstacle 
which has stood in the way of our acceptance, and it 
makes to us all a most influential appeal. Never 
does God's love seem so strong as when we contem- 
plate its manifestation in the death upon the cross, 
and never does His appeal seem so tender as when we 
hear it from the lips which uttered the agonizing cry : 
"My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?" 
11 Assuredly," observes one of the foremost men of 
our times,* " no other had ever conceived of a personal 
God, of an infinite power, with a pure and awful 
holiness of spirit, yet careful of the humblest, mind- 
ful of the meanest, and with the temper of utter 
self-sacrifice for the welfare of others paramount in 



* Dr. R. S. Storrs. 



THE GRACIOUS WORDS. 23 1 

Him ! " Yet this was the idea of Jesus of Nazareth, 
these were " the gracious words which proceeded out 
of His mouth." Union with God is possible ; union 
with God is necessary ; union with God is the sublime 
consummation of every noble hope. 

2d. In His teaching, Jesus Christ announced a per- 
sonal union with God as a seed-truth, which opens to 
influence every condition of life. There are a few 
truths which are of universal application. The natural 
world is affected in every smallest atom by the prin- 
ciple of gravitation, and the spiritual world is intimate- 
ly related to the sublime truth of man's union with 
God. This truth touches the characters, the fortunes, 
the destinies of human beings in all the wide range 
of diversified personal interests. It has convictions 
for the sinner and consolations for the saint ; it has a 
strong, helpful hand for the weak, and most cordial 
relief for the distressed ; it breaks the fetters which 
bind the slave, and suggests a solution of the many 
problems which arise between strength and feeble- 
ness ; it anticipates a golden age, whose quiet pros- 
perity will be the reign of love, and prepares for a 
celestial residence which knows sin only as a memory. 
The great Teacher understood Himself when He re- 
fused to be diverted from its proclamation. He was 
wiser than His generation, in which there were many 
learned men, who were seeking to establish theories 
of government and social order. They would have 



232 THE GRACIOUS WORDS. 

been glad to have heard from Him upon the subjects 
of pressing interest. The Roman Empire had recently 
come into existence, — would He favor an Empire or a 
Republic ? An elaborate revenue system was opera- 
tive, would He approve its methods, or could He sug- 
gest one better? Intemperance was a common and 
a destructive vice, would He advance any special 
counsels on the use of intoxicating drinks ? Slavery 
was prevalent, would He advocate emancipation? 
The rich were very rich and the poor were very poor, 
would He advise a redistribution of property, the 
enactment of corn laws, any regulation of wages? 
Judaism was regarded as an exclusive national re- 
ligion, would He outline a new religious policy, with 
a complete organization, an elaborate ritual, a pre- 
scribed code ? A great variety of religions were 
recognized in the different parts of the world, would 
He consider this diversity in His announcements of 
the truth? The preeminent greatness of Jesus Christ 
was manifested in His self-restraint, in what He did 
not say. He had not been a pupil of any famous 
school, nor had He been a man of cities, where thought 
is broader than it is in provincial towns, nor had He 
travelled into foreign parts to study the customs and 
needs of his fellow-men. He was a Nazarene ; and 
Nazareth was renowned for illiberality and narrow- 
ness of spirit. Yet when He began to teach He an- 
nounced a truth, which is the germ of every important 



THE GRACIOUS WORDS. 233 

truth, whose influence touches individual or social 
life. This truth He grasped firmly. Nothing could 
shake His hold upon it. He appreciated its character, 
and He was convinced that He could best do His work 
as a teacher by insisting upon its importance. His 
was the prophet's vision. He saw the interests of life 
in their true relation. Consequently He often seemed 
to be conservative and timid when the enthusiasm of 
His admirers found Him unwilling to rush into the 
political arena or to head a popular revolt. He, how- 
ever, was wiser than they. They would have had 
Him strike a blow, which would have wounded or 
bruised some monster of tyranny or vice, while He 
was resolutely preparing to destroy the monster. For 
the truth of union with God when once accepted, 
would inevitably break up venerable systems of super- 
stition, of slavery, of social oppression, inasmuch as 
the prevalence of this union would make men con- 
siderate and forgiving, gentle and kind, and thus, by 
securing a new life in the individual soul, would intro- 
duce " the new heavens and the new earth wherein 
dwelleth righteousness." In this He was not wrong. 
Experience has approved His wisdom. He leads the 
teachers of the world, because He has presented the 
one truth which can regenerate society. " Suited 
alike," says Dr. Geikie,* " for the peasant and the 



*"Life of Christ." 



234 



THE GRACIOUS WORDS. 



prince, it cared nothing for outward position, or the 
changes of states or nationality, but sought only to 
meet the wants and longings of man, in the inner in- 
finite world of the heart and spirit which no Herod 
could reach. Recognizing all good wherever found, 
it gladly drew to itself all that was true and pure, and 
rejoiced to ally itself with the gifts which dignify 
human nature. The friend of man, it saw in every 
soul a pearl, hidden or visible, and ennobled every 
honorable human calling by enlisting it in the service 

of God The sweet fancy of the Portuguese 

mariner, who, after rounding Cape Horn amidst storm 
and terrors, found that the ocean on which he had 
entered lay as if hushed asleep before him, and 
ascribed its calm to the glittering form of the South- 
ern Cross shining down on it, was to be turned into 
fact, in the stillness of the hitherto troubled soul 
under the light of the Star of Bethlehem." 

It will not be amiss to exhibit briefly the splendid 
possibilities which attend this idea of Jesus Christ. 
Consider, then, how amply it meets every require- 
ment of personal salvation. Sin has separated the 
soul from God. The soul is lost in view of this sepa- 
ration. For without God no soul can realize the bless- 
edness of the eternal Home. Heaven is a locality 
and also a state. Unless the state harmonizes with 
the locality, there can be no joy in Heaven. An un- 
reconciled sinner in Heaven would be more out of 



THE GRACIOUS WORDS. 235 

place than a pardoned saint in Hell ; for the saint in 
Hell might find some ministry of relief to engage his 
sympathies ; but the sinner in Heaven would know 
not what to do. It is worse than folly for any one to 
cherish the hope that he will somehow find a place in 
Heaven, if he continues to neglect God while here upon 
the earth. We must be in the heavenly state, if we ex- 
pect to enjoy the heavenly locality. When we accept 
God's gracious invitation, we repent of sin and re- 
ceive His pardon. Then we become united to Him 
by faith and love ; as truly and vitally united as the 
branch is united to the vine, or the body to the head. 
This is what Jesus said : " If a man love me he will 
keep my words, and my Father will love him, and 
we will come unto him, and make our abode with 
him." This is the beginning of Christian life. Ob- 
serve its pure spirituality. It is not dependent upon 
officiating priest, nor upon sacramental grace, nor 
upon places, orders, nor seasons. The life begins in 
each soul whenever and wherever God is made wel- 
come. The relation is personal. Each for himself 
must become united to God. As we sit here in the 
sanctuary we are divided in view of this relation. 
Some of us have accepted God, and some have 
not. While we continue here we may quietly yield 
to God and rejoice in His salvation, and may carry 
hence, as we go out, a new hope. No father can do 
this great work for his child ; no husband can make 



236 THE GRACIOUS WORDS. 

his wife receive God ; no friend can repent and be- 
lieve for his friend. Each for himself. Just as we must 
die alone, so must we enter into this divine life alone. 
Then the progress of the Christian life announces its 
order in the teaching, which says : " He that abideth 
in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much 
fruit." Christian fruitfulness appears in the virtues 
and graces of the Holy Spirit — the " love, joy, peace, 
long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, 
temperance" of a godly life. Here we find the best 
preparation for the service of earth and the glory of 
Heaven. He who is the best Christian will be the best 
citizen. Social life demands the activity of the laws 
which Christianity proclaims. When men are under 
the control of these laws they will be personally 
righteous, and their intercourse will be the beautiful 
expression of the power of a divine life. I do not 
believe that we shall witness the loathsome degrada- 
tion of intemperance when men are united to God, 
nor do I expect then to hear the plaintive cry of the 
slave ; I do not believe that the weak will be neg- 
lected when men are united to God, nor do I expect 
then to hear of wars and rumors of wars ; I do not be- 
lieve that the class distinctions, which seem like great 
chasms in our civilization, will be apparent when men 
are united to God, nor do I expect then to hear the 
indifference of prosperity and the curses of adversity 
from the sides of this chasm. My faith is strong that 



THE GRACIOUS WORDS. 237 

the idea of Jesus Christ is adequate to this work. 
That idea has already asserted itself, and the bright- 
est pages of history are covered with the records of 
its accomplishments. We need more faith. I am 
ashamed, as I observe the weakness of our faith — 
the weakness which resorts to so many human de- 
vices to assist the omnipotence of the Gospel. This 
Gospel is a vigorous Samson, without any of the folly 
of Manoah's son. But what could the vigorous Sam- 
son have done, if timid Israelites had bandaged his 
limbs for safety, had put a crutch under his arm to 
help him walk, and had loaded him with a giant's 
armor to increase his efficiency ? No ! no ! we err 
sadly when we do not trust the Gospel ! Jesus 
Christ trusted it. Are we wiser and better than 
was He ? I should be glad to witness a crusade 
against oppression and iniquity which would be con- 
ducted on His plan, with His idea. It may be well 
to advocate temperance, but there is a more funda- 
mental advocacy, and that is union with God ; it may 
be well to denounce slavery, but slavery is doomed if 
union with God becomes a reality ; it may be well to 
insist upon honesty, but every virtue and every grace 
will bloom if union with God becomes the seed of a 
new life. Christianity is positive morality. It dis- 
misses the chill and barrenness of winter by intro- 
ducing the warmth and verdure of spring. 

To this far-reaching idea Jesus Christ gave His 



238 THE GRACIOUS WORDS. 

life. He was one of the few teachers who have an- 
nounced seed truths ; L e., truths which open and 
germinate and bear fruit through the centuries. His 
truth has this characteristic : it is the most sublime, 
the most comprehensive, the most practical of all 
known truths. Two worlds are considered by it. 
Two conditions wait upon its instruction. It meets 
us here in sin and misery, and it establishes us there 
in holiness and felicity ; it contemplates a millennium 
of peace upon the earth and endless ages of loving 
service in Heaven. Compared with it, what shall be 
said of the destructive godlessness which fills the 
atmosphere with fire and smoke ; or the placid ag- 
nosticism which confesses inability to believe in God, 
angel, or spirit ; or the prevalent worldliness which 
burns the candle of opportunity to the socket and 
dies in darkness ? With Christ's idea how shall we 
compare these many ideas which are current in re- 
view or on platform ? They are negations, His idea 
is a clear statement ; they condemn us to hope- 
lessness, His idea encourages effort ; they debase our 
spirituality, His idea is instinct with glory and honor 
and immortality. We may safely teach His teaching 
to our children ; we may safely go upon the street 
with it and make it known to the multitude ; we may 
safely cherish it for our dark and lonely days. Union 
with God ! It is the polar star whose mild light con- 
ducts the mariner over life's troubled sea. 



THE GRACIOUS WORDS. 239 

3d. In His teaching, Jesus Christ made Himself 
prominent by soliciting a love whose significance is 
appreciated in this personal union with God. This is 
one of the most remarkable features of His teaching. 
He did not carry the dignity of great age, for He was 
a young man when He completed His work. He 
did not enjoy the approval of the great Rabbis, like 
Gamaliel, for He was rejected by the principal men 
of the Jews. Yet with His youth and His humble 
station in life, He ventured to call His hearers to 
Himself, and to assure them that they would become 
united to God by believing on Him. What would 
have been thought of Socrates if he had concluded 
his addresses to the young men of Athens, by saying 
constantly : " Believe on me. Accept me. Love' me. 
He that hath seen me hath seen the Father ! " Yet 
this is precisely what Jesus of Nazareth said, and the 
call from His lips seems quite appropriate. " And I, 
if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men 
unto meT There is here a prominence of self, and 
yet He was the most unselfish of all beings. His 
self, so beautiful, so attractive, so refreshing in its 
response to penitence and love, is magnetic. We feel 
its solicitations. It is the persuasiveness of the sun's 
rays which lifts the limpid water-drops from stagnant 
pool and bog. We yield to His appeal, and behold 
we are united to God. " Bertrand," said Bonaparte * 

* " Conversations at St. Helena." 



240 



THE GRACIOUS WORDS. 



to the favorite officer, who was the companion of his 
exile, " what a proof of the divinity of Christ ! 
With an empire so absolute, He has but one single 
end — the spiritual amelioration of individuals, the 
purity of the conscience, the union to that which is 
true, the holiness of the soul. Christ speaks, and at 
once generations become His by stricter, closer ties 
than those of blood — by the most sacred, the most 
indissoluble of unions. He lights up the flames of 
a love which prevails over every other love. The 
founders of other religions never conceived of this 
mystical love, which is the essence of Christianity, 
and is beautifully called charity." Then, for a mo- 
ment, the emperor was silent. Soon he resumed the 
conversation and said : " Bertrand, if you do not per- 
ceive that Jesus Christ is God, then I did wrong in 
making you a general." 

The wisdom of this method which Jesus Christ 
adopted has been generally commended. His idea — 
union with God — was too abstract for popular appre- 
ciation. " Men need a leader, an example, a person, 
to whom they can look as a centre of attraction." 
He meets that need. He secures a personal love. 
Then He opens to the experience of His disciple 
the hidden depths of that love which contain this 
precious union with God. It is with His love some- 
what as it is with the sacred love of marriage, whose 
significance can not be known at the bridal, but 



THE GRACIOUS WORDS. 241 

which finds its interpretation through years of mu- 
tual helpfulness, sympathy, and service. So is it 
with the love of Jesus, of which we hear so much. 
Beginning with the simplicity of a child's faith, it 
advances to the maturity of an affection like that 
which Paul commended when he said that it " passeth 
knowledge/' He solicits our love in order that He 
may unite us to God. He is near and visible. We 
can behold Him and hear Him speak. It is not diffi- 
cult to accept His outstretched hand. Then He 
leads us to a consciousness of God which becomes 
the strength and comfort and joy of our souls. 

There will be little or no dispute that Jesus Christ 
is the greatest teacher of the world. He has spoken 
the wisest and best word on the important questions 
of life and destiny. Whatever mysteries may con- 
front us — and I need not to be reminded of the mys- 
teries, they announce thefnselves — we may feel sure 
that the man who conforms his faith and conduct to 
the teaching of Jesus Christ will be prepared to meet 
any event of the future beyond the grave. If there 
is no future, as some tell us, then he will lose noth- 
ing, for he will never be conscious of the disappoint- 
ment to his hopes, and he will have the satisfaction 
of leading a sober, righteous, and godly life while he 
is with his fellow-men. But if there is a future, as 
the Word of God declares and our own conscious- 
ness affirms, then he will gain everything. For the 
11 



242 THE GRACIOUS WORDS. 

welcome, the crown, and the mansion are promised 
unto those who have confessed Jesus Christ in the 
experiences of their earthly lives. 

Therefore there is real joy in learning of Him — 
joy in hearing Him say, "Thy sins be forgiven thee ; 
go in peace joy in welcoming the love which He 
offers so freely to every trusting disciple ; joy in 
realizing that God is a Father who pities them that 
fear Him ; joy in knowing that sin is to be outgrown 
and that holiness is to be the abiding life ; joy in 
listening to the gentle whispers of the Holy Spirit ; 
joy in experiencing the grace which brings chastise- 
ment out of trial ; joy in the hope that strife and 
confusion, jealousy and division will not always deso- 
late the earth ; joy in the fair prospect of a celestial 
residence, whose walls are sometimes visible, whose 
seraphic anthems are sometimes heard, whose em- 
ployments are pure and sweet and blessed, and whose 
radiance, effulgent day and night, is the glory of God 
and of the Lamb. 



XIII. 



THE WORK OF JESUS CHRIST.— WHAT 
DID HE DO? 

"And the one of them, whose name was Chop as, 
answering said unto Him, Art Thou only a 
stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known 
the things which are come to pass there in 
these days f 

"And He said unto them, What things} And 
they said unto Him, Concerning Jesus of Naz- 
areth, which was a prophet mighty in deed 
and word before God and all the people : 

" And how the chief priests and our rulers deliver- 
ed Him to be condemned to death, and have cru- . 
cified Him. 

" But we trusted that it had been He which should 
have redeemed Israel ; and beside all this, to- 
day is the third day since these things were 
done. 

" Yea, and certain women also of our company 
made us astonished, which were early at the 
sepulchre ; 

" And when they found not His body, they came, 
saying, that they had also seen a vision of 
angels, which said that He was alive. 

" And certain of them which were with us went 
to the sepulchre, and found it even so as the 
women had said ; but Him they saw not." — 
Luke xxiv. 18-24. 

THE work of Jesus Christ is very completely out- 
lined in the reply of Cleopas. For three years that 
work has interested the people of Judea and Galilee. 

(243) 



244 THE W0RK 0F JESUS CHRIST. 

It has just culminated in the strange death upon the 
cross, and in the stranger rumors of the resurrection. 
Public sentiment is divided. The essential features 
of the work can not be denied, and yet there are 
many explanations of its significance which are men- 
tioned with approval. 

Cleopas and his friend are disciples of Jesus Christ. 
They have just left Jerusalem, where they have be- 
come familiar with the events of the last few days. 
On the way to Emmaus, they naturally talk together 
of all these things which have happened. They can 
not understand them. With intense admiration and 
devotion they have accepted Jesus Christ as the 
Redeemer of Israel. His teaching has commended 
itself to their intelligence, and His actions have 
seemed to be expressive of unlimited power. Yet 
in the crisis of His career, in the hour when His tri- 
umphal entry into the Holy City has been celebrated, 
He has tamely surrendered Himself to a band of sol- 
diers, and has been crucified. They are perplexed. 
No one stands ready to explain the apparent contra- 
diction. For what shall be said of the Redeemer of 
Israel, who, having exhibited resources adequate to 
the deliverances of the Chosen People from the Ro- 
man yoke, has expired upon a cross ? 

In their distress, these friends meet a stranger, 
who asks the reason of their sadness. The reply of 
Cleopas presents the general estimate of the Master's 



THE WORK OF JESUS CHRIST 245 

work which obtains among His disciples ; for he 
promptly answers that they are troubled concerning 
Jesus of Nazareth, whom they have recognized as a 
prophet, and as a revelation of God, whom they have 
followed to Golgotha, and who is said to have arisen 
from the grave. Within these four particulars the 
entire work is comprehended. Cleopas is intelligent. 
We shall not go astray if we accept him as our guide 
and institute our inquiries in the directions thus in- 
dicated. 

1st. Jesus Christ discharged the duties of a prophet. 
The great law-giver, Moses, predicted this activity 
when he said to the Hebrews : " The Lord thy God 
will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of 
thee, of thy brethren, like unto me ; unto Him ye 
shall hearken." In his address to the people of 
Jerusalem, who were assembled in the porch that is 
called Solomon's, Peter insisted that this prediction 
had met its fulfilment in the work of Jesus Christ. 
As Cleopas remarked, He was " a prophet mighty in 
deed and word before God and the people." In His 
work, the prophetical order, which had received such 
honor from the labors of many illustrious men, 
reached its culmination. The long line of prophets, 
extending from Moses to John the Baptist, found a 
leader in Jesus Christ. They all anticipated His 
coming. Without His work they could not exhibit 
the wisdom nor the truthfulness of their messages. 



246 JESUS OF NAZARETH. 

He was essential to them, as they were preparatory 
to Him. They were the shadows, and He was the 
substance ; He was the gold, and they were the drafts 
upon the treasury ; they were the types, and He was 
the antitype. 

The duties of a prophet were threefold. He was 
a narrator, as when he made known, in his own way, 
facts that were familiar ; he was also an expounder, 
as when he interpreted events ; he was, moreover, a 
seer, as when he looked into the future and announced 
its mysteries. The pen of the historian was in the 
hand of Moses, for he wrote the history of the Exo- 
dus, which occurred under his leadership. He fre- 
quently explained to the Hebrews the truths which 
God revealed, and thus he was a preacher of right- 
eousness. Besides, he had visions, and was acquainted 
with God's purposes, so that he was able to make 
predictions. Thus he met all the duties of* a prophet. 
In like manner Jesus Christ accomplished His great 
work. Very frequently He referred to the history 
of the past. With simple narratives He interested 
the common people in the records of the Old Testa- 
ment Scriptures, bearing thus His testimony to their 
divine origin. For it is generally agreed among 
scholars, that when He made mention of the Scrip- 
tures, He held in His hand the books which we now 
possess as our Old Testament. These books were 
reverenced as the Word of God. Their contents 



THE WORK OF JESUS CHRIST. 247 

were carefully studied. The thought of Christendom 
gives to the entire Bible — the Old and the New Testa- 
ments — no more respect than the Hebrews gave to 
the Old Testament alone. What, then, shall be said 
of the attitude of Jesus Christ toward these venerated 
writings ? Did He indorse that veneration ? Did 
He ever play fast and loose with the statements of 
these ancient books ? Did He refuse to make use 
of the more difficult portions, such as the story of 
Jonah, or the incident of Lot's wife? Did He explain 
such references and statements, which were generally 
accepted as historical, by reducing them to myths, 
legends, fables, or allegories ? No ; He was sincere. 
There was no duplicity in His nature. He was just 
as honest in His indorsement of the Old Testament 
as a Christian minister is supposed to be in his in- 
dorsement of the entire Bible. When you enter a 
Christian sanctuary, and are urged by a minister of 
religion to search the Scriptures, and are told that 
these Scriptures are God's Word, you can hardly fail 
to carry away the conviction that he who has been 
addressing you holds to the general Christian belief 
respecting the inspiration or divine authority of 
these books. If he does not, then you certainly must 
expect that he will say so ; and if he does not, then 
you will naturally look to see him withdraw to some 
other fellowship, where he can speak his own views 
candidly, and without the restraints which honesty 



248 THE WORK OF JESUS CHRIST. 

imposes. For honesty does impose restraints, which 
make it impossible that one should use the advan- 
tages of the Christian sanctuary to destroy the faith 
of the Christian Church. When I find that critics, 
so free and bold as Matthew Arnold * always is, 
agree with more conservative and learned scholars in 
recognizing our Old Testament as the Hebrew canon 
of the first century, I am confirmed in the opinion 
that I am reading now the sacred writings that Jesus 
Christ read ; and when I observe his reverence, his 
acceptance of the general opinion as to their inspira- 
tion, I am satisfied, yes, and more than satisfied, to 
study them as the revelation of God. 

The prophetical expositions of Jesus Christ brought 
to the surface the deep spiritual truths of the Old 
Testament. In this part of His work He did not 
announce new truths. It was His aim to expound, 
to enforce, to vitalize the truths which were concealed 
in the mines of the ancient revelation. Just as the 
miner digs into the hills to bring out the gold which 
may pass current as coin of the realm, so he labored 
to make effective the truths which men had passed 
by in ignorance, or perverted to the base uses of their 
traditional superstitions. God taught the Hebrews 
by means of object-lessons, and yet the object-lessons 
covered the great principles of redemption, which 



* " God and the Bible. : 



THE WORK OF JESUS CHRIST. 249 

hold good for all time. One may teach a class of 
children with beads and pictures the very same prin- 
ciples that a class of adults will learn in formal state- 
ments. Some of the children will grasp the princi- 
ples and will then throw away the beads and pictures, 
while there will always be grown-up children who will 
be using beads and pictures without any reference to 
the principles. This was the case with Rabbinism 
when Jesus Christ appeared. He enunciated the 
principles of righteousness, and in so doing He deliv- 
ered the people from the bondage of the traditional 
object-lessons. It is certainly strengthening to faith 
to find that the magnificent tree of New Testament 
instruction, whose branches brush the clouds, while 
they also touch the earth within reach of the weakest 
intelligence, strikes its roots into the soil of a venera- 
ble past ; that God, who " at sundry times and in 
divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers 
by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto 
us by His Son." 

Then when we consider Jesus Christ as a seer, we 
discover that to His vision the entire future was 
open. He has outlined the world's history to the 
end of time, and has given suggestions of the life of 
the eternal ages. No predictions can equal His. 
Many generations of saints have rejoiced as they 
have entered into a realization of His promised bless- 
edness. Every word of His that touches the earth 
11* 



250 THE WORK OF JESUS CHRIST. 

and the earthly life, has been approved by a wise and 
happy experience. So far as mankind have journeyed 
here in the flesh, so far His guide-book has met each 
requirement of the way. May we not trust it, there- 
fore, in what it announces of the progress within the 
veil, in what it says about death and Heaven, in what 
it assures us of a welcome and an eternal home ? 

Thus the work of Jesus Christ was that of a 
prophet. " The common people heard Him gladly." 
He was greater than John the Baptist, who was 
greater than Isaiah, or even Moses. He magnified 
this office, already splendidly exalted. Truth flowed 
from His lips. The past, the present, and the future 
were of interest to Him. He spake as never man 
spake. His words of wisdom and of grace maintain 
their freshness and efficiency, and each new genera- 
tion finds counsel and help in hearing Him. 

2d. Jesus Christ commended Himself as a revela- 
tion of God. In all ages men have been eager to 
know God, Sometimes this eagerness has been the 
curiosity of philosophical speculation, and then again 
it has been the endeavor of the convicted soul. But 
it has always been witnessed. Religion — and relig- 
ion has to do with man's conception of God — has a 
secure place in human life. Every race, every nation, 
every tribe on the globe has a religion. It was Plu- 
tarch* who said that " If you will take the pains to 

* " Morals." 



THE WORK OF JESUS CHRIST 25 1 

travel through the world, you may find towns and 
cities without walls, without letters, without kings, 
without houses, without wealth, without money, with- 
out theatres and places of exercise ; but there never 
was seen, nor shall be seen by men, any city without 
temples and gods, or without making use of prayers, 
oaths, divinations, and sacrifices for the obtaining of 
blessings and benefits, and the averting of curses and 
calamities." " Canst thou by searching find out God ? " 
asks Zophar, the Naamathite, of Job, whose lament 
is heard in the cry, " Oh, that I knew where I might 
find Him ! that I might come even to His seat ! " 
As Paul passed through the streets of classic Athens, 
he observed an altar with this inscription : " To the 
unknown God "; and as we meet our fellow-men in 
the familiar intercourse of daily life, we read in their 
spiritual destitution their personal need of God. It 
was Thomas Erskine,* of Linlathen — a man who 
breathed the purest spiritual atmosphere, and one 
whose life was in close fellowship with God — it was 
Thomas Erskine who met the shepherd on the High- 
land hills, and asked gently, " Do you know the 
Father?" and who in after-years on those same hills 
met the same shepherd and heard from him the greet- 
ing : " I know the Father now." From him we have 
the beautiful answer to the question : " What is the 



* " History of Church of Scotland," Stanley. 



252 THE WORK OF JESUS CHRIST. 

effect of revelation to us ? " " It is the disclosure to 
us of our true relations to God and to one another, 
as when an exile, after long years' absence, returns 
home and sees faces which he does not recognize. 
Then one in whom he can trust comes, and says, 
' This aged man is your father ; this boy is your 
brother, who has done much for you ; this child is 
your son.' " " Show us," said Philip, as they sat 
with Jesus around the table of the Passover, " show 
us the Father, and it sufficeth us." Then Jesus said, 
" Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast 
thou not known me, Philip ? He that hath seen me 
hath seen the Father ; and how sayest thou then 
show us the Father ? Believest thou not that I am 
in the Father, and the Father in me ? The words 
that I speak unto you I speak not of myself, but the 
Father that dwelleth in me, He doeth the works. 
Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father 
in me ; or else believe me for the very works' 
sake." 

This was His attitude. He claimed to be a revela- 
tion of God. Never do we find Him associating His 
disciples with Himself in these more intimate rela- 
tions thus sustained. He could say, as no other being 
could : I and the Father are one." He could pray 
to God as no one else could, and could refer to " the 
glory which I had with Thee before the world was." 
He could speak as no one else has dared to speak, of 



THE WORK OF JESUS CHRIST. 2 $$ 

the characteristics of the divine nature, which make 
God approachable and bring Him very near to man. 

We can hardly fail to mention the word which is 
inevitably associated with the statement of this sub- 
lime fact. We do not hesitate to announce our faith 
in a veritable incarnation, although we shall refuse to 
be driven to undertake an explanation of this supreme 
mystery. Jesus Christ was a revelation of God, be- 
cause as the eternal Word He became flesh and dwelt 
among us. This was His claim. " I came forth from 
the Father and am come into the world ; again I leave 
the world and go to the Father." He can not be 
classified with mortals. He is above us, far, far above 
us. His life is radiant with a divine illumination. 
His presence is a testimony, which is as convincing as 
the greeting of the sun. He establishes His own 
claims. His personal character is the argument which 
His enemies can not meet. Either He was deceived, 
and His exalted wisdom and practical good sense for- 
bid the supposition : or else He was a deceiver; and 
this old reproach of the Jews has long since ceased 
to be heard ; or else He was sincere and intelligent ; 
and the verdict of criticism has written " perfect " 
above His name. If His was the perfect character, 
then we can not keep back the homage which belongs 
to Him as a revelation of God. 

At once we are led to a recognition of what we are 
accustomed to call " the supernatural." Here is a 



254 THE WORK OF JESUS CHRIST. 

person who is human, and yet more than human : here 
is an interposition from the spiritual realm : here is the 
presence of God in the life of man. This should not 
startle us. A belief in God carries with it, of neces- 
sity, a belief in such a possibility. Who will dare to 
say that God can not become incarnate ? 

It was to establish His claims before the people that 
Jesus Christ performed miracles. He presented Him- 
self, and announced His claims, and then did many 
wonderful works. The miracles, be it remembered, 
are not to be separated from His life and teaching. 
He was not a miracle-worker, and nothing else ; nor 
was He pre-eminently a miracle-worker. His miracles 
were the confirmations of His claims. But there are 
many who object that the miracles, as reported, are 
the burdens of His claims. There is a general impres- 
sion that the Gospel narratives are rather loaded than 
sustained by these accounts of miracles. Consequent- 
- ly the endeavor has been put forth to get rid of the 
miracles entirely by reducing these plain accounts to 
legends or myths, which had their birth in the imagi- 
nations of credulous disciples. As to this we may say 
that considerable time is required for the formation, 
or development, of legends or myths. They are 
growths from the seeds of truth. Every legend or 
myth covers some truth. Now we know that the 
Gospel narratives were in existence within a few years 
after the death of Jesus Christ. There was not time 



THE WORK OF JESUS CHRIST. 255 

enough between His death and the appearance of the 
Gospels for the formation of these miraculous stories. 
Then, too, the recital, as we find it, is easy and 
natural. The miracles are described just as ordinary 
events are. They have their appropriate places. 
There is no appearance of an endeavor to multiply 
them. They are dignified and commanding, never 
foolish and puerile. " Rabbi," said Nicodemus, "we 
know that Thou art a teacher come from God : for no 
man can do these miracles that Thou doest except 
God be with him." In that sentence the place and 
value of miracles is very clearly stated. " A teacher 
come from God " presents himself. His character is 
approved. His teaching is acceptable. Now let him 
do some wonderful thing, let him still a tempest with 
a word of command, let him rebuke sickness, let him 
restore the dead. Is it unreasonable to ask him to 
do such things ; is it unreasonable to expect him to 
do them ; is it unreasonable to believe that he has 
done them ? Most certainly it is, if the whole case 
is prejudged by definitions of what is reasonable, and 
what is miraculous. For example, in a volume of 
essays quite recently published, I meet this statement : 
" Reason tells us that a miracle — understanding by a 
miracle a breach of the laws of nature — is impossible ; 
and that to think it possible is to dishonor God ; for 
the laws of nature are the laws of God, and to say 
that God violates the laws of nature is to say that He 



256 THE WORK OF JESUS CHRIST. 

violates His own nature." Now that is a strong 
statement in its conclusion if its premise is sound. 
But if the premise is unsound the conclusion is 
worthless ; and the premise is the clause so artfully- 
inserted, " understanding by a miracle a breach of the 
laws of nature." But that is just what many of us do not 
understand. A miracle is an unusual and extraordinary 
use of nature's laws. But until we are perfectly ac- 
quainted with those laws we have no right to say that 
the stilling of a tempest by the word of such a person 
as Jesus Christ is a breach of the laws of nature. We 
are constantly contending with nature's laws. Our 
mechanical devices are almost all intended to defy or 
subdue certain laws of nature. And shall we say 
that an intelligence like that of Jesus Christ may not 
work with these laws or even above them to accom- 
plish desirable results ? When we are able to antag- 
onize force with force, and to exert our puny strength 
in so many ways, shall we refuse to believe that He, 
so glorious in His personality, did not give sight to 
the blind, hearing to the deaf, health to the sick, and 
life to the dead ? 

Accepting Jesus Christ as a revelation of God, how 
interesting His life-work appears ! The knowledge 
which we all crave is presented to us. So far as we are 
able to appreciate Him we may now know God. He 
is as Jesus was : and Jesus was as He is. Purity, con- 
sideration, benignity, love, are the divine character- 



THE WORK OF JESUS CHRIST. 



istics in which we rejoice. The babes in the dear 
Master's arms are lessons which have brought comfort 
to many troubled hearts, as there has arisen anxiety 
concerning God's interest in children ; the pardon 
which met the penitence of publican and harlot is 
still bringing hope to the wayward and dissolute ; the 
encouraging presence in the sick-room has brightened 
many a weary hour of pain ; the command which was 
exhibited over death and the grave is heard in every 
Christian cemetery, with its announcements of life and 
resurrection. "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and 
to-day and forever." We know now that " like as a 
father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them 
that fear Him." Our hearts are open, our ears are 
attentive. God is, henceforth, our " exceeding joy." 

3d. Jesus Christ died upon the cross as a ransom 
for sin. "The Son of Man came not to be minis- 
tered unto, but to minister, and to give His life 
a ransom for many." That life bore steadily on to 
the cross. Not more surely do the waters of Lake 
Erie press on to the Falls of Niagara than did the 
career of Jesus Christ advance to the crucifixion. He 
came to suffer, and to die. The 53d chapter of Isaiah 
was a prediction, which it was necessary for Him to 
fulfil. He lived always in the shadow of the cross. 
His life would have been incomplete, and His teach- 
ing would have been valueless, if both had not been 
crowned by death. The tragical event, which Jewish 



258 THE WORK OF JESUS CHRIST. 

wrath had contrived as the extinction of His influence, 
became its impulse. From that memorable hour on 
Calvary, when the " It is finished " of His dissolution 
was heard, His name has been sacred, His memory 
has been cherished, His truth has won respect and 
confidence, and His love has dominated every affec- 
tion. Stricken, pale, bleeding, dead, He still pos- 
sesses a magnetism, which draws to His cross peni- 
tence and sorrow, tenderness and sympathy, aspira- 
tion and hope. The crown of thorns is the symbol 
of universal authority, and the despised cross is the 
recognized throne of the King of Glory. A wonder- 
ful work, consummated by a shameful death ! A 
spotless life, securing its triumph through crucifixion ! 
A sublime teaching, finding its interpretation in 
agony and blood ! Yet this we meet, as we consider 
the work of Jesus Christ. He lived to die, and in 
dying made His life illustrious forever. 

But why? And the question presses. Why did 
He die ? His death was not an accident ; nor was 
it simply a martyr's death. It has a more profound 
significance. It was a ransom — " to give His life a 
ransom for many." He died to reconcile us to God. 
He was a sacrifice, but a voluntary sacrifice. He 
freely and cheerfully gave Himself on our behalf. 
The principle of substitution, so widely illustrated in 
the universe, found its culmination in His death. 
We may not represent this glorious sacrifice as a vio- 



THE WORK OF JESUS CHRIST. 259 

lent, compulsory wreaking of vengeance upon an in- 
nocent person. For Jesus Christ gave Himself to 
the death upon the cross in order that He might re- 
deem sinners. His was the heroism of the mother 
who loves not her life unto the death, when she 
bends over the form of the plague-stricken child ; or 
the heroism of the sailor who leaps into the sea to 
rescue a drowning comrade ; or the heroism of the 
soldier who volunteers for duty in the forlorn hope. 
" For the joy that was set before Him, He endured 
the cross, despising the shame." We may not hope 
to penetrate this mystery of mysteries, so as to un- 
derstand it perfectly. We may say many things 
about it, but we can not say all. A complete theory 
of the atonement is as impossible as a complete 
theory of God's nature and attributes. We know 
that the death of Jesus Christ looks in a Godward 
direction, and meets the demands of God's moral 
government. We know also that it looks in a human 
direction, and secures penitence and faith through 
the activity of the Holy Spirit. We know still fur- 
ther that it influences the angels, as it ' exhibits to 
them the redemptive love of God. But no man can 
tell us how all this is. We can know the facts ; it is 
very doubtful if we can know their philosophy. . 

Yet what a fact this is ! Here is a race which is 
in need of divine assistance, and here is a Saviour 
who has died in the place of sinners. He shed His 



2 6o THE WORK OF JESUS CHRIST. 



blood on our behalf. He has endured the sufferings 
which we deserve. He offers us pardon and ever- 
lasting life upon the one condition of faith. Only 
believe, and all condemnation will be removed ; only 
believe, and your name will be written in the Lamb's 
Book of Life; only believe, and the Holy Spirit will 
renew and sanctify you ; only believe, and Jesus 
Christ will be your intercessor; only believe, and 
Heaven's joys will meet earth's expectations at the 
boundary line called death ! Precious faith ! Glorious 
hope ! A vista opens before the pardoned sinner 
which brings to view the triumph of the Saints ! 

4th. Jesus Christ arose from the sepulchre. Ten- 
derly they drew the nails from His hands and feet, 
gently they lowered His body from the cross, care- 
fully they wrapped His form in the finest linen, and 
then, with bowed heads and aching hearts, the dis- 
ciples carried the precious remains to the sepulchre 
of Joseph of Arimathea. Pilate had granted this 
permission, after he had learned from the Roman 
centurion that life was extinct. No one in Jerusalem 
believed that He was then alive, that He had merely 
swooned. The Scribes and the Chief Priests went 
home at sunset, with the satisfaction that they had 
disposed of a very troublesome person, and the dis- 
ciples gathered in an upper room to talk of their 
common disappointment. A seal was placed upon 
the stone that secured the sepulchre, and a guard of 



THE WORK OF JESUS CHRIST. 26 1 

soldiers was stationed to watch. Thus the hours of 
the Sabbath dragged themselves wearily along, and 
the morning of the first day of the week appeared. 
Faithful women are at the city's gate before the 
rising of the sun, and when the gate is open they 
hasten to the sepulchre. There a surprise awaits 
them. The sepulchre is empty. An angelic voice is 
heard. Tidings of a resurrection are given. The 
greeting of the Master is soon received. They are 
thrilled with joy. Despair gives way to astonishment, 
and astonishment to faith, as " He showed Himself 
alive after His passion, by many infallible proofs, 
being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the 
things pertaining to the Kingdom of God." They 
believed that He had arisen. Their faith was com- 
manding. Nothing could shake it. A new impulse 
was given to life ; a new direction was given to en- 
deavor. " Jesus and the resurrection " became the 
theme of the preaching which was presently heard 
in the Temple of Jerusalem, in the groves of pleas- 
ure-loving Antioch, on the streets of brilliant Corinth, 
in the splendid palaces of Rome, on the decks of 
Mediterranean corn-ships, by the camp-fires of the 
Danube, on the shores of distant Britain. The intel- 
lect of the ancient world was stimulated to its grand- 
est efforts by the thoughts which were thus present- 
ed, and the heart of humanity felt the warmth of a 
sweet, balmy inspiration, as this divine presence was 



262 THE WORK OF JESUS CHRIST. 



recognized above the grave. Death conquered ! The 
grave despoiled ! Life and immortality brought to 
light ! Every cheering, every comforting announce- 
ment presented ! Every expectation, every hope 
made real ! Belief quickened endeavor. The possi- 
bilities of the resurrection became the constraint of 
holiness. Men destroyed their idols and began to 
worship in the Spirit. Lust was crucified, in order 
that the new life of purity might arise from this death 
to sin. Brotherhood was cultivated in view of a 
common relation to God in Christ. Sympathy was 
pronounced to the sorrowing, and the pencil of resig- 
nation covered the walls of the catacombs with the 
hopeful confidences which made martyrdom a splen- 
did triumph. 

Such — in our imperfect representation — was the 
work of Jesus Christ. He accomplished His work, 
" and then a cloud received Him out of their sight." 
Shall we, my friends, despise this work ? God forbid ! 
In so doing, we would utter our own folly ; we would 
discover our own shame ; we would declare our own 
condemnation. Shall we then trifle with it? The 
interest is too serious. It concerns us vitally. Shall 
we neglect it ? One may starve in a land of plenty, 
and perish with hunger while he has in his hand an 
invitation to a banquet. Shall we accept it ? Then 
will there come to us the sweet consciousness of its 
excellence, as we find our estimate of His work by 



THE WORK OF JESUS CHRIST. 263 

using the fruits thereof, by enjoying the grace 
which He presents. " Oh, taste, and see that the 
Lord is good." Come in humility and accept the 
work of Jesus Christ ; make Him your prophet, for 
He can teach you ; make Him your priest, for He 
can atone and intercede for you ; make Him your 
king, for He can rule, protect, and enrich you. Thus 
through His work, you may leave the old and wretched 
life of sin and enter into the life of holiness, which 
has the promise of endless years. For " this is life 
eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true 
God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." 



XIV. 



THE PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST. 

" What think ye of Christ f Whose Son is He?" 
— Matt. xxii. 42. 

Who is Jesus Christ ? There can be no doubt that 
He once lived in Judea and Galilee. Many of His 
discourses have been preserved, and the universal tes- 
timony of good and wise men is, that they contain 
the truths which are essential to the formation of 
character. His work has also commanded attention. 
Its significance has been carefully examined, and its 
influence has been traced into a great variety of indi- 
vidual and national experiences. History has as- 
signed Jesus Christ the first place among the leaders 
of thought whose activity has made them the bene- 
factors of the race. His fame is secure. Time can 
only add to the homage which He has already re- 
ceived. The Gospel faces the future with the fresh- 
ness and promise of youth. When its consummation 
has been realized then will be known the importance 
of His mission, who " brought life and immortality 
to light." 

But who is He ? The old question presents itself 

(264) 



THE PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST. 265 

for an answer to every inquiring, anxious soul. Con- 
scious of need, deeply conscious of sin and the con- 
demnation of sin, the soul is directed to Jesus Christ. 
His presence is a reality. The tones of His voice 
reach the ear with comfort, and the assurances of 
His work arouse hope. He speaks of pardon, and 
He certainly lives and dies with reference to sin. 
Yet all this may be of the past. Inspired men have 
lived, and then have disappeared entirely. Miracles 
have been performed, and the miracle-workers have 
gone the way of all the earth. Must He — great as a 
prophet, great as a worker of miracles — be associated 
with Moses and Isaiah, Elijah and Elisha? If so, 
He can not be a present Saviour, " able also to save 
them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him." 

Many years ago an honored teacher * remarked in 
my hearing that there can be but four answers to the 
question, who is Christ? Either He is only man, 
or else He is only God, or He is neither, or He is 
both. Each of these four answers has been up for 
consideration, and upon each one of them the formal 
judgment of Christendom has been pronounced. Our 
task, therefore, will be quite simple, as we pursue 
our inquiry along a beaten path. 

1st. Jesus Christ is man. His human nature is 
perfect. Human nature in its perfection has the 



* Prof. R. D. Hitchcock. 
12 



266 THE PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST. 



elements which are found in the male and the 
female characters. These two related and com- 
plementary characters form human nature. " Our 
common humanity was created male and female." 
" In the day that God created man, in the like- 
ness of God made He him ; male and female cre- 
ated He them ; and blessed them, and called their 
name Adam, in the day when they were created." 
The careful statement of the Book of Genesis, a 
statement which has the precision of scientific lan- 
guage, should be remembered in the consideration of 
the manhood of Jesus Christ. His manhood was a 
complete humanity. The strength and vigor of the 
male and the gentleness and beauty of the female, 
were illustrated by His life and conduct. He was 
stern and uncompromising in the presence of sin, and 
He was tender and sympathetic whenever He en- 
countered sorrow ; His terrific denunciations of the 
Pharisees were mingled with His lamentations over 
the fate of Jerusalem ; His heroic advance to the 
agony of Golgotha was associated with His appeal 
to the disciples to watch with Him in Gethsemane. 
Manly force and womanly compassion met in Him. 
As His humanity was superior to all racial distinc- 
tions, so that He is adapted to every continent and 
every age, it also touched life at every point of the 
complete social circle. He may not be separated 
from any experience. No child may say that the 



THE PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST. 267 

man of Nazareth has nothing in common with child- 
hood, because humanity embraces every interest of a 
child, and He was human. A woman may not say 
that the Son of Man can not present to her an ideal, 
because humanity includes every interest of a wom- 
an, and He was human. Robertson performed a 
great service when he announced this Scriptural truth 
as the best defence against the errors of Mariolatry.* 
" Think of Christ only as the masculine character 
glorified by the union of Godhead with it, and your 
Christianity has in it an awful gap, a void, a want, 
the inevitable supply and relief to which will be Mari- 
olatry, however secure you may think yourself, how- 
ever strong and fierce the language you now use. 
Men who have used language as strong and fierce 
have become idolaters of Mary. With a half-thought 
of Christ, safe you are not. But think of Him as the 
divine-human being in whom both sides of our double 
being are divine and glorified, and then you have the 
truth which Romanism has marred and perverted into 
an idolatry pernicious in all ; in the less spiritual wor- 
shippers, sensualizing and debasing." 

That Jesus Christ was man was the general opin- 
ion of His disciples and of the early Church. The 
disciples clasped His hand, and heard His voice, and 
caught the pleasant greeting of His eye. With Him 



* Sermons, Vol. II., " The Glory of the Divine Son." 



2 68 THE PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST. 

they shared their food. They observed that He was 
hungry and thirsty and weary and faint. From in- 
fancy He had developed naturally into childhood, 
and from childhood into mature life. " Jesus," as 
the evangelist has said, " increased in wisdom and 
stature, and in favor with God and man." He was 
tempted. He suffered. He prayed for help in times 
of sore distress. He felt the pains of crucifixion. 
His blood flowed from wounded hands and feet and 
side. He met death, and came under the power of 
death. The New Testament writers all agree with 
the Apostle John, who expresses his mature convic- 
tions in such forcible words as these : " That which 
was from the beginning, which we have heard, which 
we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked 
upon, and our hands have handled of the word of 
life." 

The importance of a correct estimate of the hu- 
manity of Jesus Christ can not fail to impress the 
mind. " Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus 
Christ is come in the flesh is not of God." If His 
humanity was only a seeming, a pretence, as certain 
members of the Church of the second and third cen- 
turies declared, then He can not be a Mediator. For 
the Mediator between God and men is the man Christ 
Jesus. He comes very near to us, and is thus ap- 
proachable. He illustrates the glorious possibilities 
of our humanity, and is thus an example to us all. 



THE PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST. 269 

He magnifies the law by His perfect obedience. He 
gives up His life as a ransom in order that we may 
be delivered from the bondage of sin. Whatever else 
He may be, Jesus Christ is man. Thank God ! we 
have a glorious ideal ! There is a Jewish proverb 
which says that " the secret of man is the secret of 
the Messiah." " To know ourselves," remarks Prof. 
H. B. Smith,* " we must know Christ, and to know 
Christ is to know ourselves. Just as one born a 
poet does not know the full stores of his own imagina- 
tion until he has read Homer, Dante, Milton, and 
Shakespeare ; just as the sculptor does not know his 
gift in art until he has gazed entranced upon the 
matchless products of Greek and Roman statuary ; 
just as the young painter, when standing before the 
breathing canvas that revealed to him all the power 
of the pencil, cried out in wonder, ' I too am a paint- 
er so the human soul may gaze on all other forms, 
linger on all other impersonations of thought and feel- 
ing, and explore all art and science, but, until it 
stands face to face with the Lord of the race, the 
Saviour of the lost, it can not feel all the height and 
depth of human woe and of human love, all the soul's 
boundless capacities, its supreme destiny." There- 
fore we rejoice in this acquaintance with the Son of 
Man. His earthly life meets us so cordially in our 



* " System of Theology," p. 384. 



270 THE PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST 

despair. We are encouraged by it to such heroic en- 
deavors. It answers so many questions. It announces 
so many prophecies. " As for me," and the Psalmist 
was weary and sad, when he took his harp and raised 
his plaintive song, which bore him on the wings of 
hope, " As for me, I will behold Thy face in right- 
eousness ; I shall be satisfied when I awake with Thy 
likeness "; and John, with clearer, riper knowledge, 
comforted himself, cheered his old age at Ephesus, 
and brightened the faith of each new Christian gen- 
eration by recording his belief that we are now the 
sons of God, and that when Christ shall appear we 
shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 
" Like Him " in the perfection of our humanity, " like 
him " in the radiant glory which humanity secured 
when He triumphed ! 

2d. Jesus Christ is God. Familiarity with this 
statement should not be permitted to weaken its 
force. It is certainly a wonderful statement. The 
perfect humanity of Jesus Christ exalts Him far 
above all other human beings who are affected by the 
degrading influences of sin. But His divinity places 
Him upon the throne of God. Can we make such a 
statement ? Are we justified in assigning the Son of 
Mary to such a sublime position in the universe ? May 
we look up to Him with adoring reverence and love, 
even while we sympathize with His sorrows and grieve 
over the misery of His earthly life? 



THE PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST. 271 

The verdict of Christendom has been in favor of the 
complete divinity of Jesus Christ. This is an im- 
portant fact which should have great weight with the 
present generation of inquirers. The probabilities 
are in favor of a verdict which has commanded the 
assent of Christendom, by entering into the great 
creeds, by stimulating the successful missionary activ- 
ity, by becoming the theme of devotional literature. 
The creeds of Christendom, Roman, Greek, Protest- 
ant, agree in their recognition of Jesus Christ as the 
Son of God. The heroic missionaries, like* Paul, 
Columba, Xavier, Brainerd, Livingstone, Patteson, 
have carried this faith in their hearts, and have felt 
the warm impulses of its constraining love amid the 
hardships and persecutions of their devoted service. 
The devotional literature of the church, which is the 
life-blood of theology, has exhibited this dependence 
upon one who may be regarded as 

"The Lamb of Calvary, 
Saviour divine." 

Christendom has been a patient student of the Bible. 
Keen and discriminating intellects have searched the 
Scriptures. The antagonisms of unbelief have assailed 
and must destroy every weak and indefensible posi- 
tion. The Council of Nicaea in the fourth century was 
a veritable Waterloo. When Athanasius, the young 
deacon of Alexandria, held the line of battle on be- 



272 THE PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST. 

half of " the faith once delivered to the saints," the 
forces of Arius, who denied the divinity of Jesus 
Christ, were repulsed and driven from the field. " The 
creed of Arius was torn up, and the fragments strewn 
upon the floor of the council-chamber ; and with but 
two dissenting voices their own creed was given to 
the world." This creed, with modifications in its 
forms of statement, but without any change in its 
essential truths, has since commanded a cordial as- 
sent. We respect it now. Our advance is with the 
column which has enrolled the martyrs, the confessors, 
the missionaries, and that multitude which no man can 
number, whose robes have been washed and made 
white in the blood of the Lamb. 

Led thus into the presence of the Apostles and 
Evangelists, we find that their writings justify the in- 
terpretation which they have received. We have their 
writings, and are competent to judge for ourselves. 
In these writings they constantly refer to Jesus 
Christ as to one who existed with the Father before 
He appeared upon the earth. "God sent forth His 
Son." " The Word was with God, and the Word was 
God." " Being in the form of God, He thought it not 
robbery to be equal with God." " He is before all 
things, and by Him all things consist." " All things 
were made by Him." Then, moreover, to Him they 
freely apply divine titles, as when John says, " This 
is the true God and eternal life "; or when Paul says, 



THE PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST. 273 

" Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning 
the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed 
forever"; or when Thomas, the doubter, is brought 
to the confession, " My Lord and my God "; or when 
Peter says, " Sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord "; 
or when Jude speaks of the condemnation which rests 
upon certain who persist in denying " our Lord 
Jesus Christ." These godly men, who are contend- 
ing so earnestly with superstition and idolatry, do not 
hesitate to present Jesus Christ as the object of wor- 
ship. Thus Paul declares his belief that " at the name 
of Jesus every knee should bow .... and that every 
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the 
glory of God the Father." Luke says that " the dis- 
ciples worshipped Him." The prayer of the dying 
Stephen is a direct appeal for His assistance : " Lord 
Jesus, receive my spirit." John, in the visions of the 
Apocalypse, sees something of the worship of Heaven, 
and recognizes Jesus Christ as the recipient of thanks- 
giving and praise, and glory and honor. 

We are permitted to pass from the presence of the 
Apostles and Evangelists into the presence of our 
Lord himself. We may question Him. His claims 
may be considered. He speaks of Himself without 
reserve. For example, when He addresses the learned 
men of the Jews He says : " I and the Father are 
one." Instantly a charge of blasphemy is heard. 

With one consent the Jews condemn Him, saying in 
12* 



274 THE PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST. 

their accusation : " Thou being a man, makest thyself 
God." Does He deny the justness of their charge ? 
Does He retract or alter His statement? Not in the 
least. On the contrary, He repeats it ; and with 
such emphasis that He is obliged to flee in order to 
escape their violence. Then when He is arrested and 
brought as a prisoner before the Sanhedrin, what is 
His attitude ? Is He disconcerted ? Does He appear 
at all like a fanatic or a deceiver? Is He hesitant? 
There is an awful stillness as the High-Priest arises 
and calls upon Him to speak decisively and honestly. 
" I adjure Thee by the living God that Thou tell us 
whether Thou be the Christ, the Son of God ? " The 
words are well chosen. They admit of a positive de- 
nial, or as positive an affirmation. Which shall it be ? 
Life is sweet. Deception has never marred the speech 
of Jesus. What will He answer? Will He prove true 
to His record ? In this supreme moment will He 
establish or destroy the beautiful fabric which He has 
built to shelter the needy souls of men ? We may 
trust Him. His courage does not fail. Calmly He 
answers : " Thou hast said. Nevertheless I say unto 
you, hereafter shall ye see the Son of Man sitting on 
the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of 
Heaven." Can you ask for more ? Would you have 
Him state His divinity more clearly? Can you hope 
to brush away His claims, or to read any other meaning 
into His words? "The High-Priest rent his clothes, 



THE PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST. 275 

saying, He hath spoken blasphemy : what further 
need have we of witnesses ? behold now ye have heard 
His blasphemy: what think ye? They answered, 
and said, He is guilty of death." Then as they led 
Him to Pilate, the Roman governor, they had but one 
ground of complaint to urge against Him, saying, in 
their wrath : " He ought to die, because He made 
Himself the Son of God." But with Pilate He was 
silent. He accepted the judgment of their complaint. 
The charge was true. He could not and He would 
not deny it. For this He submitted to the scourging, 
to the persecution, to the cross, and to the shame of 
a culprit's death. 

The value of this testimony, which Jesus Christ 
gave concerning Himself, will be greatly affected by 
our estimate of His character as man. If His 
character awaits this testimony as a princely life 
awaits a coronation, then we must be confirmed in 
the belief that He is, indeed, the Son of God. And 
such, my friends, is the case. The testimony of Jesus 
Christ is sustained by His own self-consciousness. 
That self-consciousness itself is an argument, positive, 
clear, and convincing. Who has ever searched the 
hidden depths of the humam heart as He has? Who 
has ever urged repentance for the least sins as He 
has ? Who has ever rebuked hypocrisy as He has ? 
And yet, discover, if you can, the first evidence in His 
speech of a consciousness of personal gilt ; find, if 



276 THE PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST. 

you can, a single instance which will warrant the 
remark that He felt the necessity of repentance. 
Then observe the dignified composure of His hu- 
mility, which utters itself in the frequent "/ say unto 
you," and which never associates the disciples with 
Himself on the plane of their common relation to the 
Father— "My Father" often, "your Father" often, 
" our Father " never. For the prayer which He 
gave as the model of all prayer, was for the use of 
the disciples and not for His own use. Advance to a 
consideration of His announcements concerning His 
work and invitations, concerning His wisdom and 
power. Hear Him as He pronounces authoritatively 
the forgiveness of sins ; contemplate the day of judg- 
ment, and remember that He has said that He is to 
occupy the throne. Read the history of Christianity, 
and find its outlines in the predictions which fell from 
His lips. This argument, elaborated carefully in an 
essay by Professor Van Oosterzee, of Utrecht,* can 
not be answered in the light of history. The per- 
sonal consciousness of Jesus leads as directly to His 
divinity as the soft touch of a gentle hand, the 
friendly ministry of compassionate interest, the holy 
solicitude of earnest endeavor do to a heart which is 
sanctified by grace. (t That this wonderful image of 
Christ depicted in the Gospels"— I quote from the 



* Princeton Review, July, 1878. 



THE PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST. 277 

essay just mentioned — " should have been invented 
by men so very far inferior to the ideal they shaped, 
is psychologically absurd and altogether unimagin- 
able. He who degrades the Lord — for so in fact we 
ought to call it — who degrades Him into being a 
once crucified Jew, living now merely in the grateful 
recollection of mankind and in probable immortality, 
like any other deceased martyr — he debases not 
merely Christ's whole manifestation, but the whole 
history of the Christian Church in its birth and 
growth to an obvious absurdity. To such an ab- 
surdity, I, for my part, prefer a mystery, which as 
mystery, even when revealed, can never be fully ex- 
plained. I prefer this not only in the name and for 
the sake of faith, but quite as much in the name and 
for the sake of sound, reasonable common sense and 
of true and trustworthy science." 

These claims of Jesus Christ were securely but- 
tressed, as we know, by His miracles, especially by 
the miracle of His resurrection. He was " declared 
to be the Son of God with power, according to the 
spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead." 
The miracles did not stand alone, nor did His life 
stand alone. The miracles and the life were inti- 
mately associated. The life announced the miracles, 
and the miracles were the natural expressions of the 
life. When the life is carefully studied, the miracles 
do not seem strange ; and when the miracles are con- 



278 THE PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST. 

sidered, they are seen to be in harmony with the life. 
Very early in His public ministry, Jesus gave the 
promise of His resurrection; and from that hour, 
until the morning of the first day of the week, which 
witnessed His triumph over the grave, His life was 
as much in preparation for that supreme event as the 
silent winter-work of nature, in buried root, in tender 
sapling, or in spreading oak, is in preparation for the 
efflorescence of the spring. The life without the 
resurrection would have been incomplete — a failure, 
indeed. But with that glorious fact to consummate 
it, it appears in the finished beauty of absolute per- 
fection. 

Thus His divinity is established in Christian 
thought — Jesus Christ is God. Infinitely exalted, 
He receives the adoring worship of saints and angels. 
All power is given unto Him in Heaven and in earth. 
He has a right to command. He is able to promise. 
No word of His will ever fail. No trusting soul, 
looking to Him for help and salvation, will find that 
He can not or that He will not grant the blessing of 
eternal life. 

3d. Jesus Christ is both God and man. "They 
shall call His name Emmanuel, which, being inter- 
preted, is, God with us." He stands by Himself. 
There is no other being like Him in the universe. 
We have found that He is man ; we have found, also, 
that He is God. We must conclude, therefore, that 



THE PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST. 279 

He is the God-man. And this conclusion need not 
startle us. It is mysterious, but only more mysteri- 
ous because less familiar than the union of soul and 
body, which constitutes a human being. We know 
that a human being has a physical, a fleshly organiza- 
tion ; and we know, also, that he has an immaterial, 
a spiritual organization. Through the union of the 
two, human life discovers its capabilities. The phys- 
ical organization can not think and love and choose, 
nor can the spiritual organization hunger and thirst 
and faint and die. But when both are united, the 
human life, thus resulting, may suffer and enjoy, may 
work and play, may serve God and honor His holy 
name. This distinction has always been recognized, 
and the possibilities of this union determine the 
methods of education. Socrates replied to his 
friends, who warned him of the threats of his ene- 
mies : " They may kill me, if they can catch me." 
He did not mean that he would seek safety in ordi- 
nary flight, but that he — the spiritual organization — 
was beyond the reach of his persecutors. In like 
manner, Jesus encouraged His disciples by saying : 
" Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able 
to kill the soul." 

" Why then should it be thought a thing incredible 
with you," that God should become incarnate? Hu- 
manity needs an incarnation. Our race is crushed 
and ruined by sin. In God alone is our help. Why 



280 THE PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST. 



should He not bring help? He made us for Himself, 
and we have rebelled against Him. Is there any 
reason why He should not endeavor to restore us? 
Does God dishonor Himself when He considers our 
needs? Have the promptings of love jio response 
in His pure nature ? May we not accept Him, if He 
draws near to us in the person of Jesus Christ ? I 
search in vain for a reason why the incarnation may 
not be accepted, if it is adequately sustained by evi- 
dence. I propose no philosophy of this great mys- 
tery, just as I am satisfied to live without a philosophy 
of the union of a true body and a reasonable soul in 
every human being. I can trust and love my friends 
without being an anatomist, or a metaphysician. 
Philosophy is not an essential of faith. Faith rests 
upon evidence ; and philosophy seeks to know the 
causes, or reasons, or methods of things which do ap- 
pear. We may believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, 
because He is God and man, and may find that He is 
a perfect Saviour ; and yet, we may not be able to 
answer one of a thousand questions, which may be 
asked concerning Him. For as the God-man, Jesus 
Christ, meets us on the level of common life, and 
conducts us to God, the Father ; He speaks con- 
fidently of the divine purposes, because He came 
forth from God, and represents our interests at the 
Court of Heaven, where He is our Advocate ; He 
sheds His blood as the propitiation for the sins of the 



THE PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST. 28 1 



whole world, and His sacrifice is infinitely meritorious 
in view of His divinity ; He becomes the first-fruits . 
of them that sleep in death, the wave-sheaf of an 
abundant harvest of resurrection triumphs ; He is 
the last Adam, the life-giving spirit of a redeemed 
race, which is to bear the image of the heavenly ; 
He is the supreme Judge, to whom every record must 
be submitted, and who is to pronounce the final sen- 
tence upon every soul ; He is the king with many 
crowns, whose praise shall never cease, whose au- 
thority will ultimately secure complete recognition, 
whose benediction is the joy of the Lord. 

Consequently there is no invitation like that which 
He presents to the weary, sin-laden soul : " Come 
unto me, and I will give you rest." For the invita- 
tion is charged with divine energy, as well as with 
human sympathy; and it pledges a rest, which can 
never, never disappoint. In that invitation, God 
speaks. The promise can be made effective. Oh! 
how often has it opened to yield its treasures of 
blessedness ! Then there is the assurance of His con- 
stant presence, which the divinity makes real. " I 
am with you alway, even unto the end of the world," 
is a pretty sentiment, but nothing more, unless Jesus 
Christ is divine. The Hebrew viceroy of Egypt 
gathered his kinsmen about his bed, as he was dying, 
and said to them : " I die, and God will surely visit 
you." He used no such language as the Saviour did ; 



282 THE PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST. 

and yet he was a man of pre-eminent distinction. Jesus, 
however, with few attendants, with no extended repu- 
tation, pronounced in favor of His own universal 
presence, a presence which time can not affect, and 
distance can not render impossible ; a presence, which 
lighted the apostolic age and which is the cheering 
reality of this modern age. " I am with you alway." 
A glad announcement to cheer the lonely Christian 
here, as he maintains his hopeless defence against the 
savage Arabs of the Soudan, and a sweet welcome to 
greet him, as his devoted spirit is set free from the 
body and enters into the eternal home. " I am with 
you alway." A precious assurance, which becomes 
the companion of stormy ocean voyages, when the 
sea is tempestuous and death rides upon the waves. 
" I am with you alway." A soft pillow, on which the 
head may rest and find repose, when fever and pain 
awaken every distressing sensation of the nerves ! 
" I am with you alway." A constant reproduction of 
the scenes in Capernaum, where His teaching met so 
cordial a reception ; of the scenes in Bethany, where 
His visits were eagerly anticipated and as eagerly en- 
joyed ; of the scenes in Jerusalem, where He gave to 
worship a definite and spiritual significance ; of the 
scenes in the Garden and around the cross, where He 
endured His agony and surrendered His life. Jesus 
Christ is He who liveth and was dead, and behold 
He is alive for evermore. 



THE PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST. 283 

Do we need a Saviour? And why? Have we sins 
to be forgiven ? Are we conscious of an estrangement 
from God ? Do we look for glory, honor, and im- 
mortality? The Saviour is here. Jesus Christ is the 
Saviour. In every particular, He meets the require- 
ments of salvation. Shall we accept Him? If so, 
we shall quickly know that there is joy and peace in 
believing. 

Do we. need a friend — a friend who will never die, 
a friend who will never leave us, a friend upon whom 
we may rest our anxious hearts in every time of 
trouble? Jesus Christ is such a friend. He meets 
the children in their infancy ; and the old men find 
that He is with them even to the end of life. Quick 
to respond, generous in His adaptation, cordial in 
sympathy, Jesus Christ has ever commended His 
friendship. 

Do we need an intercessor? Are we sometimes 
conscious that death leads on to judgment ? Can we 
plead for ourselves ? Have we any merits which God 
will approve? Jesus Christ is an intercessor. Our 
humanity, glorified, indeed, but still marked with the 
imprints of the crucifixion, is an eloquent appeal, and 
His perfect divinity, recognized by all in Heaven, is 
an irresistible advocacy. 

Am I wrong in commending to you Jesus Christ, 
the Son of God, the Son of man ? Will you err if 
you welcome Him and make His salvation your con- 



284 THE PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST. 

fidence ? No ! Customs change. States and nations 
decline and fall. The tides of life ebb and flow. 
But the blessed sun which shone upon the patriarchs 
still shines upon our paths, and the pale moon brings 
her welcome night by night. The old is ever new. 
Those things that can not be shaken must remain. 
Above the strife of tongues, above the angry war of 
words, above the mists of speculation, above the 
gloomy fogs of infidelity, Jesus Christ, the Saviour, 
maintains His calm dignity. He is gracious still. 
With outstretched hands, He addresses human need. 
To weariness, to weakness, to anxiety, to despair, He 
says " come." And behold in coming, one and all 
find peace. 



XV. 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

"But these are written that ye might believe that 
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that be- 
lieving ye might have life through His name." 
— John xx. 31. 

It was toward the close of the first century that 
John, "the disciple whom Jesus loved/' undertook to 
record his impressions of the Masters life and work. 
He was then an aged man. For many years he had 
been a witness of the progress of the Gospel, as the 
new faith had marched out through the gates of Jeru- 
salem to establish a residence in Ephesus, Corinth, 
and Rome. Evangelists and apostles had left to the 
churches numerous writings, which presented interest- 
ing facts and explained important doctrines. These 
writings were preserved with unusual care. A rever- 
ence like that which guarded the Hebrew Scriptures 
was paid to them. In the public worship of each 
Lord's day they were read and expounded ; and in the 
more familiar worship of the Christian household their 
contents were considered by parents and children. 
John had observed their influence. His home was at 

Ephesus. " The care of all the churches " occupied 

(285) 



286 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 



his time. He was the survivor of the intimate com- 
panions of Jesus Christ. No one else remained. His 
memory was stored with precious incidents, which 
should not be allowed to pass away with his departure. 
He could speak. Why should he not write? In 
writing, however, what should he select ? What 
method or aim should govern him ? He looked out 
upon the churches, and recognized the needs of Chris- 
tians. To what particular need should he address 
himself ? The antagonism of Judaism and of heathen- 
ism was intensely bitter. How should he prepare the 
best defence against it ? There were many desperate 
endeavors to undermine the faith. In what way could 
he hope to strengthen his brethren in the Lord? 

With a wisdom which commends itself to every 
age, John undertook to confirm faith rather than to 
assail error. He knew that the confirmation of faith 
is the destruction of error, that a pure and holy life in 
Christ is a refutation of the argument of infidelity, 
that the brightness of noonday is the best answer to 
the gloom of midnight. Consequently he chose a 
practical method, and adopted a plan which exhibits 
the influence of Jesus Christ upon life. " He selected 
from the treasury of his recollections," Godet re- 
marks,* " a certain number of traits which he commit- 
ted to writing, in order that the Church, whilst sharing 



* " Commentary on Gospel." 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 287 

his faith in the Messianic and divine character of 
Jesus, might partake of the life which he himself had 
found through faith in that name." 

Thus his writing was governed by a purpose which 
should govern all religious writing. The Gospel is 
not principally a system of doctrines, but a method of 
life. Its doctrines, every one of them, have relations 
to life. They produce life as their fruit. This was 
the conviction of the aged apostle, whose experience 
had covered so many eventful years ; and with this 
conviction to guide his pen, he wrote that " ye might 
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and 
that believing ye might have life through His name." 
That he was wise in holding himself strictly to this 
grand purpose will be evident if it is remembered 
that: 

1st. The activity of Jesus Christ finds its ultimate 
expression in character and life. " I am come," He 
said, " that they might have life, and that they might 
have it more abundantly." Again He said : " I am 
the living bread which came down from Heaven : if 
any man eat of this bread he shall live forever, and 
the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give 
for the life of the world." This announcement of our 
Lord aroused the indignation of the Jews, who said 
among themselves : " How can this man give us His 
flesh to eat?" Then came the reply, so emphatic 
and plain that its meaning should not be questioned : 



288 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 



" Verily, verily I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh 
of the Son of Man and drink His blood, ye have no life 
in you. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my 
blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the 
last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood 
is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh 
my blood dwelleth in me and I in him. As the living 
Father hath sent me and I live by the Father : so he 
that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is that 
bread which came down from Heaven : not as your 
fathers did eat manna, and are dead : he that eateth 
of this bread shall live forever." This reply instantly 
discovers the relation which our blessed Lord sustains 
to life. He declares solemnly that He is positively 
essential to life. Without Him there can be no life. 
" Ye have no life in you." Then He insists that there 
must be an acceptance of Him and His work, which 
resembles the eating and drinking of bread and wine. 
" Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink 
His blood, ye have no life in you." Besides, He some- 
what interprets His work when He presents it as food 
and drink, inasmuch as food and drink must be adapted 
to the nature of him who is to receive them. His 
flesh is meat indeed, because His body has been 
broken for us in the crucifixion ; and His blood is 
drink indeed, because that blood has been shed. The 
language is highly figurative, and yet the truth is not 
concealed. Without difficulty we grasp it. Its sig- 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 289 

nificance becomes evident as we examine it. We shall 
not be superstitious, and believe that we may eat the 
veritable body and drink the real blood of Christ : nor, 
on the other hand, shall we reduce this most important 
announcement to an unmeaning commonplace. In 
one of his sermons Dr. Arnold * remarked that " as it 
would be mere folly to suppose that Christ meant us 
to eat His flesh and blood, so it is not doing full 
justice to His meaning if we lose sight of this main 
truth that He is indeed to be the food of our souls : 
their daily and their main support, without whose 
nourishment they can not live in health "; and Dean 
Stanley, in his " Christian Institutions," f has said that 
this " is one of those startling expressions used by 
Christ to show us that He intends to drive us from 
the letter to the spirit, by which He shatters the crust 
and shell in order to force us to the kernel. ,, " It is 
as if He said, ' It is not enough for you to seethe out- 
ward face of the Son of Man, or to hear His outward 
words, or to touch His outward vesture. That is not 
Himself. It is not enough that you walk by His 
side, or hear others talk of Him, or use terms of affec- 
tion and endearment towards Him. You must go 
deeper than this : you must go to His very inmost 
heart, to the very core and marrow of His being.' " 
Hence the prompt recognition of the fact that the 



* Sermons, Vol. I., Serm. 24. 
13 



t Page 94. 



290 THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

kingdom of God is within you is all-important ; and 
it is quite as important that there should be a recog- 
nition of the nature of that kingdom which is " right- 
eousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost ": and 
still further that " righteousness, peace, and joy in the 
Holy Ghost" are life, and life eternal should be as 
evident as are the ordinary conditions of physical well- 
being. When, therefore, Jesus Christ appears to 
establish the kingdom of God, when He labors so 
faithfully to make that kingdom real, we can not 
escape the conviction that the aim of His activity is 
character and life. He refused to head a rebellion 
against the authority of Rome ; He made no efforts 
whatever to build up a great establishment of social 
order ; He did not even outline a form of government 
for His Church. One thing was needful : character; 
and its expression must be renewed and sanctified. 
A new man must appear. Through the energy of 
character the will of God must gain supremacy in the 
earth. Everything is made to bear upon this supreme 
result. The tree is to be known by its fruit. If the 
fruit of the Spirit, " love, joy, peace, long-suffering, 
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance," 
constantly appears, then His activity realizes its aim. 

This was the understanding of Paul, whose splendid 
nature was so grandly affected by Christ, when he 
wrote, as he did to the Galatians : " I am crucified 
with Christ : nevertheless I live : yet not I, but Christ 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 29 1 

liveth in me : and the life which I now live in the flesh 
I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me 
and gave Himself for me." He knew nothing of doc- 
trines which were designed to be used as intellectual 
toys ; he could not find in any portion of the activity 
of our Lord a single feature which was not of practical 
service to him. His was a Christian character from 
its centre to its circumference ; and, as a conse- 
quence, his was a Christian life from the hour of its 
new birth to the hour of its triumph. Nor was he 
mistaken in his use of the Gospel. Experience has 
approved his estimate. Character and life still wait 
upon man's acceptance of the activity of our Lord. 
Bring any man, however degraded, to that accept- 
ance, and you will quickly observe the transformation 
which grace effects. No power can equal it. Its aim 
is as direct as is that of the arrow, when it is shot by 
a skilful archer. Conscience is smitten by its deadly 
shaft. Alarm is felt. A cry is heard. An answer of 
hope is given. Consecration is witnessed. The be- 
ginning of better things introduces the endless life of 
peace and holiness. 

Character and life, my friends, are worth saving. 
Ever} 7 interest of our social order depends upon them. 
If character is corrupt and life is immoral, social order 
will be unstable and pernicious. Even Heaven would 
find its beauty and harmony destroyed by the presence 
of unholy character and vicious life. Christ came to 



292 THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

save the lost ; and His salvation contemplates the 
perfect character and the spotless life which carry 
their own prophecies of perpetual, undying, glorious 
development. And this is what we crave. Death is 
dreadful. Yet the physical translation into life and 
immortality, often called death, is the chief of bless- 
ings. We are unclothed in order that we may be 
clothed upon ; we are absent from the body in order 
that we may be present with the Lord. That trans- 
lation is not death. Death is sin, the limitation of 
sin, the defilement of sin, the hopelessness of sin. 
" The' wages of sin is death : but the gift of God is 
eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord." "This 
is the record that God hath given to us eternal life, 
and this life is in His Son." When the redeemed of 
all the ages are secure in Heaven ; when the last soul 
has entered into the complete enjoyment of the per- 
fect life that is known there ; when every harp is in 
tune, and every voice melodious, and the song of 
saints and angels blends in harmony, then shall be 
known the exceeding riches of God's grace in His 
kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. 

2d. Character and life are determined by a central 
principle and a law of development. At the centre 
of every character there is a definite principle ; and no 
life develops without reference to some special law. 
The principle is like the point of crystallization, 
around which nature forms her beautiful workman- 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 293 

ship ; and the law is like the method of growth, which 
appears in vegetable and animal structures. The 
central principle will determine the character, and the 
law of development will determine its progress. There 
are mean, selfish characters, and their central principle 
is some contemptible, petty motive ; and there are un- 
fruitful, useless lives, and their law of development is 
that of the upas tree ; then there are rich, noble char- 
acters, and their central principle is consecration to 
some holy service ; and there are brave, helpful lives, 
and their law of development is that of the oak. 
There are colorless characters, and positive characters, 
and attractive characters, and repulsive characters, and 
satanic characters, and godly characters. But in every 
case the character will correspond with its central 
principle. When that is known the character will be 
known. Let any man come forward and announce 
his ruling purpose, and you will quickly form an ac- 
quaintance with the man. Some one has said that 
" character builds an existence out of circumstance. 
Our strength is measured by our plastic power. 
From the same materials one man builds palaces, 
another hovels; one warehouses, another villas. 
Bricks and mortar are mortar and bricks until the 
architect can make them something else. Thus it 
is that in the same family, in the same circumstances, 
one man rears a stately edifice, while his brother, 
vacillating and incompetent, lives forever amid ruins. 



2Q4 THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

The block of granite which was an obstacle in the 
pathway of the weak becomes a stepping-stone in the 
pathway of the strong." 

One of the most searching and helpful questions, 
therefore, is the inquiry as to the central principle. 
This is a question which many persons never raise. 
They appear to be drifting on the current of life 
rather than to be making intelligent and steady prog- 
ress in a definite direction. How many of us, my 
friends, could answer satisfactorily if we should be 
asked, What are you living for? We might reply 
that we are living to have a good time ; and we 
should have to blush in making the reply, because 
pleasure can not be regarded as a noble, supreme 
end ; or we might reply, that we are living to succeed 
in business ; and that reply would indicate a low esti- 
mate of the value of life, for business success is a 
means to usefulness, to enlarged opportunity, but it 
is not to be sought for its own sake ; or we might 
reply, that we are living to make a great name, and 
that reply would outline our disregard of ease, of 
comfort, even of friendship, of everything that stands 
in the way of ambition ; or we might reply, that we 
are living to serve God, to obey His commandments, 
to make our fellow-men acquainted with His love ; 
and that reply would find its confirmation in the 
purity, the humility, the energy of a Christian life. 
I do not think that most men would like to face the 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 29$ 

real central principle of their lives. Self-examination 
is never an agreeable task. We like to compliment 
ourselves. The superficial elements or features of 
life are those which flatter us. We turn very will- 
ingly to receive the greeting of our good deeds, such 
as they are ; but we are not so ready to sit down to 
a solitary, closet conference with ourselves, and there 
to look fairly and honestly at ourselves. Such times 
admit of no deception. The good deeds are apt then 
to hang their heads and to slink away in shame. They 
know that they are not genuine. So many inferior 
motives have entered into their composition, that 
they are not pure expressions of a sacred love. 
" When I would do good," writes the apostle, " evil 
is present with me." Back of the good deeds are the 
motives, more retiring, and yet willing to submit to 
an examination. They are dismissed one by one ; 
for, alas ! too many of them are selfish or base. Then 
come the central principles, the supreme choices, 
which are quickly classified as for and against God. 
Some are apologetic, some are plausible, while one 
alone insists upon the demand that " thou shalt love 
the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy 
soul and with all thy mind." This great central 
principle is uncompromising. It must assert itself 
supremely. From the decision of the will, it expects 
to rule the affections, the desires, and the appetites, 
so that " your whole spirit and soul and body may be 



296 THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord 
Jesus Christ." How is it with you, my friend, in 
respect to the central principle of character? You 
are a man of the world, you answer. Yes ! but are 
you not a man of God ? You are a man of business. 
Yes ! but are you not a man of God ? You are a man 
of the farm or the workshop. Yes ! but are you not 
a man of God ? You are a man of books. Yes ! but 
are you not a man of God? Each one of us may 
profitably institute a day of judgment for himself, 
and thus may anticipate the final decisions of that 
great day when ye shall " return and discern between 
the righteous and the wicked ; between him that 
serveth God and him that serveth Him not." Those 
decisions will be based upon character, and the cen- 
tral principles of character will assuredly determine 
them. How important, therefore, that the central 
principle be the supreme choice of God ! How im- 
portant that this principle be made effective, while 
the character is still unformed! The child should 
be urged to love God ; for very early in life we may 
discover the beginnings of a consecration which will 
eventually grow up into him in all things, which is 
the head, even Christ. If we believe in growth — and 
who does not? — by all means let us believe in spirit- 
ual growth ; and if we believe in the necessity of a 
holy life, by all means let us encourage every child 
to trust God's Word and to accept the providence 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 297 

and grace which a kind Heavenly Father offers. 
Child-life — sweet, fresh, buoyant — is a blessed reality. 
I should be sorry for the Gospel, or for our estimate 
of it, if Christian child life — bright, winsome, happy, 
loving — should ever fail of a cordial recognition. 
When is a child too young to love the Saviour? I 
do not know. But I am persuaded that there are 
many men among us here to-day, who would now be 
rejoicing in a good hope through grace, if the consid-" 
erateness of their lives years ago had been a welcome 
to the Saviour. It was not expected that a child 
should become a Christian. A child was kept at a 
distance. The fruit of the tree of life was too often 
propped up beyond the reach of the little hands. As 
a consequence, many a childish question was silenced, 
and many a childish aspiration was checked. The 
Gospel was preached from Mount Sinai instead of 
from the Mount of Beatitudes, and the thunder and 
lightning and fire and smoke terrified not a few 
youthful souls, who might have been won by the 
gentle voice of our blessed Lord. We need not try 
to improve upon His method. If He said, "Suffer 
the little children to come unto me "; who are we 
that we dare to say that no little child can be a true 
disciple? Well has it been said "that the same grace 
of God that can recover a man from the error of his 
ways, if applied early enough and with proper con- 
stancy, can keep the boy from straying into ways of 
13* 



298 THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

error. The boy that has religious character enough 
to admit of his being ungodly, has religious character 
enough to admit of God's grace keeping him godly. If 
a child is far enough along to go astray, he is far enough 
along to have God's grace keep him from going astray." 

3d. The central principle and the law of develop- 
ment which Jesus Christ makes real, restore the order 
of nature as God's supremacy is recognized in the 
beauty of holiness. The order of nature is the per- 
fect type. Perfection was lost by the Fall. It ap- 
peared again in the humanity of Jesus Christ ; and is 
to reappear in the holiness of His disciples. Then all 
that was lost will be found again. The celestial city, 
the abode of tried virtue, will more than match the 
excellence of Eden, the abode of innocence ; the per- 
fect man in Christ will be superior to the first man, 
Adam, who was created in the divine image. Herein 
is discovered the glorious triumph of redemption. 
Where sin abounds grace does much more abound. 
The restoration which our Lord Jesus Christ accom- 
plishes is life, and life eternal ; " according as His 
divine power hath given unto us all things that per- 
tain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge 
of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue : 
whereby are given unto us exceeding great and prec- 
ious promises : that by these ye might be partakers of 
the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that 
is in the world through lust." 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 299 

The Christian life which Jesus Christ aims to origi- 
nate and then to develop, has its central principle 
and its law. The fruits of the Spirit are not hung 
upon it, as toys are hung upon a Christmas-tree. 
They are the natural products of growth. As the 
life grows these fruits appear. " I have chosen you 
and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth 
fruit." " Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear 
much fruit : so shall ye be my disciples." " As the 
branch can not bear fruit of itself, except it abide in 
the vine : no more can ye except ye abide in me." 
" He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same 
bringeth forth much fruit." Union with the Lord is 
evidently recognized here as the central principle of 
character and life ; and that union is one of faith and 
love. He presents Himself as the object of faith. He 
asks us to accept Him. If we comply v/ith His re- 
quest He takes possession of our souls. Henceforth 
He is to be Supreme Master and Lord, We are no 
longer our own. Recognizing His authority, we re- 
joice that He may express in us His holy will. As a 
divine Saviour He has received our allegiance. We 
wish Him to do for us, and with us, as seems good to 
Him. Our attitude is one which we would not sus- 
tain toward any other being. For while we might 
possibly confide in the sagacity of some one else, we 
could not feel sure of His love ; or while we might 
trust the love, we could not rest satisfied with the 



300 



THE CHRISTIAN LITE. 



sagacity. But with Jesus Christ, who has lived for us, 
and died for us, and who is now interceding for us, we 
can have no distrust. He deserves our implicit con- 
fidence, and He is able to reward it. Just as we are 
He welcomes us ; and then He aims to renew us 
daily, to inspire a holy ambition, to rebuke pride, to 
refine us, to spiritualize every motive, so that He may 
" present us faultless before the presence of His glory 
with exceeding joy." Here, then, at the centre of 
character is a grand principle, " which is Christ in you, 
the hope of glory." We may refer to it constantly. 
It admits of numerous applications. Every other 
principle may be subordinated to it. As in education 
the man should always be superior to the specialist, so 
that the manhood of the physician, the lawyer, the 
scientist, the minister is more evident than any skill, 
or learning, or eloquence that may be possessed by the 
individual : in like manner, in life, the Christian should 
control the merchant, the farmer, the mechanic, every 
pleasure and every business. In the providence of 
God my work may be here or there, but by the grace 
of God, I am to do it as a Christian. " Brethren," 
writes Paul to pleasure-loving Corinth, " let every 
man wherein he is called, therein abide with God." 
We are not so much in need of place or opportunity 
as we are of fidelity. We need to appreciate the 
divine estimate of fidelity. Life is the essential thing, 
— rich, noble, holy life. The Christian is to manifest 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 



301 



such life in every place and under all circumstances. 
First the Christian, and then the physician, the law- 
yer, the scientist, or the minister. Down through all 
the pursuits of life, down into every variety of char- 
acter, the love of Christ is expected to manifest its 
control ; so that men in every station, in every rank, 
in every vocation will exhibit its power. 

" And so the Word had breath and wrought 
With human hands the creed of creeds, 
In loveliness of perfect deeds, 

More strong than all poetic thought : 

" Which he may read that binds the sheaf, 
Or builds the house, or digs the grave, 
And those wild eyes that watch the wave 
In roarings round the coral reef." 

To assist in the formation of character and the 
guidance of life, Jesus Christ gives us a law of de- 
velopment. This development — Christian living — is 
to proceed from the germ of consecration. It is by 
the expanding of that germ that we realize the beauty 
of holiness, or life eternal. To inform us, and also 
to encourage us, we are given this law. It consists of 
three terms, — an example, distinct rules, and an in- 
spiration ; and it is administered through the personal 
agency of the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ himself is 
the example. The endeavor is to be like Him. This 
endeavor is a rebuke and an encouragement — a re- 
buke of pride and sensualism, and an encouragement 



3 o2 THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

of all that is lovely and of good report. How many- 
follies we should escape, how many evils we should 
avoid, how many services we should render, how many 
virtues and graces we should apprehend if we should 
always look to Christ ! How would He do under 
circumstances like these ? What pleasures would He 
approve? In what pursuits would He join? Then 
comes the sweet consciousness that we are gradually 
resembling Him, that we are more charitable, that the 
world has less of a hold upon us, that we are caring 
more for Heaven. " Not as though I had already 
attained, either were already perfect, but I follow 
after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I 
am apprehended of Christ Jesus." We have seen this 
resemblance. Christ-like men and women are not un- 
known. The model is reproduced in the holy living 
of Christian lives. 

I can not enumerate the rules which have been 
given. You will find them in the Bible. Every 
Christian needs the Bible. As he becomes familiar 
with its sacred truths he finds that they are all in- 
structive and helpful. A Christian without interest 
in the Bible should be as rare as a navigator without 
interest in the charts of the ocean, or as an astronomer 
without interest in the tables of celestial geography, 
or as a magistrate without interest in the statutes of 
the commonwealth, or as a child without interest in, 
news from home. The Bible rewards study. It may 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 303 

seem to be a book of mysteries, but the intelligence 
of the Holy Spirit will make those mysteries plain, 
and will thus present them, one by one, as the truths 
of life. 

To stimulate endeavor, to quicken and to energize 
spiritual life, we have the inspiration of love. " The 
love of Christ constraineth us." That love is a prec- 
ious reality. The Holy Spirit keeps it warm and 
influential. More and more does it discover its ex- 
cellence as experience ripens. This love knows no 
disappointments, but many surprises. For while it 
enters with forgiveness, and announces pardon to 
the penitent soul, it is constantly opening new pos- 
sibilities and revealing new prospects, until, at last, 
it stands beside the gate of Heaven and receives 
the ransomed of the Lord, to the perfect joy of 
life with God. Then the soul is completely filled 
with the divine fulness ; then the fellowship, inter- 
rupted by sin and restored by grace, makes God a 
friend as well as a Ruler, a companion as well as a 
king. " And they heard the voice of the Lord God 
walking in the garden in the cool of the day." Such 
was the communion of Eden. " Therefore are they 
before the throne of God, and serve Him day and 
night in His temple ; and He that sitteth on the 
throne shall dwell among them." Such is the com- 
munion of Heaven. Life is capable of a divine fellow- 
ship. Only through life may we hope to be prepared 



304 THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

to enter into the many mansions in the Father's house. 
" Out of self, into Christ, up to glory," are the three 
steps of this divine progress. Christian character, 
Christian life, and Christian immortality are insep- 
arably united. 

It is to confirm and to develop faith that the Lord's 
Supper invites us. This Supper, instituted by our 
divine Lord and Saviour, is one of the strongest 
evidences in support of His life and work. Without 
Him it can not be explained. Into His gracious pres- 
ence it conducts us. We are convinced anew that 
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Then, according 
to His own promise, we find that He communicates 
Himself to us, by the Holy Spirit, in the sacred bread 
and wine, and that we are fed and cheered as we thus 
receive Him. Life discovers its richness and blessed- 
ness. We sit together in heavenly places in Christ 
Jesus, and enjoy a foretaste of that communion which 
the saints around the throne are realizing constantly. 
This is life, true life, life worthy of endless duration. 
God bring us all to the experiences of this holy life, and 
to His name shall be praise forever ! 



XVL 



LEAVEN.— THE INFLUENCE OF JESUS 
CHRIST. 

"Another parable spake He unto them: ' The 
kingdom of Heaven is like unto leaven which 
a woman took and hid in three measures of 
meal, till the whole was leavened' " — Matt. 
xiii. 33. 

THE familiar process of bread-making presents a 
beautiful illustration of the influence of Jesus Christ. 
His influence affects the individual and social life of 
the world, as the leaven which the housewife used 
affected the measures of meal. She selected a sub- 
stance which was distinct from, and yet adapted to, 
the nature of the meal ; and the influence of Jesus 
Christ is a blessed reality which is distinct from, and 
yet adapted to, the nature of man. Man must receive 
it as a precious gift of God, which he is able to ap- 
propriate. When he does so he may appreciate its 
power. The leaven was placed in intimate contact 
with the meal ; and this divine influence must take 
possession of the heart, in order that it may produce 
its effects upon character and life. It always works 
from the heart to the character and thence to the life. 

The meal was moistened and heated before the leaven 

(305) 



306 LEA VEN. 

discovered its activity, just as the heart must be quick- 
ened and stimulated by the Holy Spirit, if the in- 
fluence of Jesus Christ is to make itself felt. That 
influence is often present when no response whatever 
is given to its appeals ; and then again its presence is 
joyfully recognized and its good work begins. The 
Holy Spirit can prepare for its reception. But without 
that preparation the sacred influence of the Redeemer 
would be as impotent as leaven in measures of dry 
meal. Silently the leaven permeated the measures of 
meal in which it had been placed, until the whole was 
leavened; and the assurance is given that the influence 
of Jesus Christ will reach to every portion of human 
nature, " spirit and soul and body," and to every in- 
terest of social life. The triumph is to be complete. 
Thus a very simple process of the domestic economy 
appears with instructive analogies, which have refer- 
ence to the progress of the kingdom of God. 

But while these analogies are so evident that they 
can hardly escape detection, there is one which is 
dependent for its announcement upon, the labors of 
the chemist. More than a century ago the discovery 
was made that " leaven is a mass of active, living cells, 
each about the 3000th of an inch in diameter, per- 
forming within itself all the functions of life, and 
multiplying by self-division." * " These minute cells," 



* MacMillan, "Two Worlds are Ours," p. 158. 



LEA VEN. 307 

chemistry tells us, " which constitute living matter in 
almost its simplest condition, grow and propagate 
with inconceivable rapidity ; a single cubic inch of 
leaven, during the heat of fermentation, containing 
upwards of eleven hundred and fifty-two millions of 
them." With this understanding, the thought of the 
parable instantly gains in energy and beauty. All 
that has been said of its analogies remains true, and 
now it is possible to add this pervasive, life-imparting, 
life-distributing conception of the divine influence. 
That influence is to diffuse itself by becoming at each 
new point of contact a centre of life. What then is 
the influence? How are we to explain it? Is there 
a science of the Gospel, which enables us to trace the 
influence of Jesus Christ as it makes itself felt in every 
least particular of life ? Our definition of this in- 
fluence may properly be given in the language of 
God's Word. Therefore, we may say that : 

1st. The influence of Jesus Christ is "the grace of 
God that bringeth salvation." " By the grace of God 
I am what I am," writes Paul, " and His grace which 
was bestowed upon me was not in vain ; but I labored 
more abundantly than they all ; yet not I, but the 
grace of God which was with me." In this clear ex- 
pression of his dependence upon divine grace, the 
apostle indicates the source of all spiritual life. He 
is aware that he is entirely destitute of spiritual life 
until he receives the grace of God. Spiritual life can 



3<d8 lea ven. 

not be aroused by any process of spontaneous gener- 
ation. It must be imparted as the grace of God is 
bestowed. The alkaline plains of the American desert 
do not burst out into fertility unless the water of 
irrigation reaches them. Water is the essential con- 
dition of fertility. From the snow-capped mountains 
whence the streams are called by the warmth of the sun, 
the water is conducted by the inventive skill of man 
into the heart of the desert. There it makes its pres- 
ence known in the verdure of the meadows, in the fra- 
grance of the gardens. The grace of God is the water 
of life, whose contact with human nature means the 
renovation of every thought, of every affection. The 
penitent thief, to whom the grace of God came with 
hope in a dying hour on the cross, discovered instantly 
the faith which was thus aroused. That faith was the 
beginning of a holy walk and conversation. Without 
it there could have been no readiness whatever to ac- 
company our Lord as He entered Paradise ; while 
with it there was a preparation for the enjoyment of 
the life around the throne. " Grow in grace," is a 
command which recognizes the necessity of possessing 
grace. Unless, therefore, we receive the grace of God 
we surely can not hope to develop that grace. Culture 
is not a substitute for grace, nor is morality. Grace 
is distinct. It must be distinguished from all human 
excellence. A gracious experience and a gracious life 
have their origin in the sincere acceptance of grace. 



LEA VEN. 309 

Consequently the judgment of the world is not God's 
judgment. He demands grace. He looks for grace. 
The world applauds strength and beauty and pomp. 
It has little consideration for grace. Looking on the 
outward appearance, the world estimates character by 
conduct. Looking on the heart God considers the 
real issues of life. A man of wealth once invited a 
friend to go with him to the roof of his house that he 
might see his possessions. Waving his hand toward 
the west, he said : " All that is my estate." Then 
pointing in another direction, he added : " That 
splendid farm is mine." Again directing attention 
to a large house, he continued : " And that too is 
mine." Quietly his visitor heard him, and then point- 
ing to a little village among the trees, remarked : " In 
that village there is a woman who can say more than 
all this." " Indeed," was the instant response, "what 
can she say ? " " Why, sir, she can say 1 Christ is 
mine.' " Thus it comes to pass that the poor of this 
world are often rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom 
which God hath promised to them that love Him. 
Grace exhibits a few of its advantages and blessings 
in this life ; but in the life which is to come it yields 
the treasures of immortality in Heaven. 

For Paul associates the everlasting life of the saints 
with the triumph of grace when he writes to the 
Ephesians : " God who is rich in mercy, for His great 
love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead 



3 io LEAVEN. 

in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ ; by 
grace ye are saved ; and hath raised us up together, 
and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ 
Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the 
exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward 
us through Christ Jesus." Those endless ages of the 
eternal day will witness no dependence upon human 
merit, will hear no boasts of man's good deeds. 
There will be a sincere consciousness that the grace 
of God has begun and is continuing the good work 
which makes possible a sinner's residence in Heaven. 

Grace is the influence of Jesus Christ, as it is applied 
to the heart by the Holy Spirit. This influence may 
be traced to the love of God. " God so loved the 
world that He gave His only begotten Son." Grace 
is God's love. But the love of God is not always 
grace. There is a love which shines in every ray of 
sunlight, which sparkles in every dew-drop, which 
smiles in every flower, which speaks in every song of 
bird, which is written upon the rocks, which sustains 
the ordinary life of man. This love is divine good- 
ness, or benevolence, rather than the grace of God. 
Grace is redemptive love, love which is tinged with 
the blood of a priceless sacrifice, love which reaches 
us by way of the manger and the cross, love which 
exhibits God's regard for justice in the atonement of a 
voluntary substitute, love which provides for the com- 
plete justification of a penitent sinner, love which is 



LEAVEN. 311 

the unmerited favor of God who wishes to save, love 
which is pressed upon our acceptance by the Holy 
Spirit. The love of God which has ever been His 
purpose to redeem is grace; the love of God which 
was expressed by our dear Lord when He lived and 
suffered and died, is grace ; the love of God which is 
now making real and effective the work of Jesus 
Christ, is grace. Grace is a comprehensive term. It 
is love, and yet it is more than love, or rather it is 
love divinely conditioned by sacrifice. Reaching our 
hearts and gaining possession of them, it makes the 
influence of Jesus Christ an absolute control. "We 
love Him because He first loved us." His perfect 
life secures our admiration ; His teaching commends 
itself ; His work becomes our only confidence ; His 
Spirit is a sweet and blessed inspiration. " We count 
all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge 
of Christ Jesus our Lord." Self-denial becomes the 
law, whose obedience is spiritual happiness. We wish 
in all things to submit entirely to the will of God. 
That will is infinite wisdom and infinite love. We 
rest in it, and by and by we rejoice in it. Faber has 
not gone beyond the truth of Christian experience in 
his song : 

** I worship thee, sweet will of God ! 
And all thy ways adore, 
And every day I live I seem 
To love thee more and more. 



312 



LEA VEN. 



Thou wert the end, the blessed rule 

Of our Saviour's toils and tears ; 
Thou wert the passion of His heart 

Those three and thirty years. 
And He hath breathed into my soul 

A special love of thee, 
A love to lose my will in His, 

And by that loss be free." 

Can you not appreciate the splendid possibilities 
which wait upon our acceptance of such a divine in- 
fluence? This is a life-imparting power. Christ's 
presence is a real presence. He lives in the hearts of 
His disciples, and there He makes His presence 
known. Is anything too hard for Him? Can He 
make His way against every obstacle? Most as- 
suredly ! There lives not the man whose nature He 
can not subdue; and there is no institution which He 
is unable to transform by grace. Only give Him the 
opportunity; only welcome His influence ; only make 
His authority supreme, then await the results with 
patient faith, with holy expectation. For the spring- 
time of life will surely come, and after that the sum- 
mer ; and the golden age of social order will find its 
solidity and permanence in the love of man, which is 
a response to the grace of God. 

2d. " The grace of God that bringeth salvation " 
enters into the soul of man to produce in his life the 
Christian graces. The grace of God is not the Chris- 
tian graces, although it may be said to be the material 



LEAVEN. 3I3 

out of which those graces are formed. Between the 
grace of God and the Christian graces there is always 
a human life. This human life receives the grace, 
appropriates it, and then expresses it in the graces. 
A luscious peach, so fresh and juicy, may be said to 
be composed of the acids and alkalies of the earth, 
the oxygen and nitrogen of the atmosphere, and the 
oxygen and hydrogen of water. Yet who does not 
know that the peach-tree is essential to the produc- 
tion of a peach ? These inorganic substances, many 
of them invisible, are received by the tree through 
roots and leaves, and are then assimilated. Pres- 
ently the peach appears. Without these substances 
there would be no peach, and without the peach-tree 
there would be no peach. In like manner grace is 
dependent upon human life for the production of the 
graces. No one can see the grace of God until it 
appears as the graces. Then it is evident. For, as 
our Saviour said, " By their fruits ye shall know 
them." " Men do not gather grapes of thorns nor 
figs of thistles." A most instructive experience con- 
firms the testimony of God's Word, which assures us 
that the Christian graces are evidences of His grace. 
Grace in the heart will produce the graces in the life. 

These graces, if we may accept the enumeration of 
the Apostle Peter, are the essential elements of the 
best life. Indeed, without them no life can be even 
respectable. The general agreement of public senti- 
14 



3 i 4 LEAVEN. 

ment demands the presence of these elements to some 
degree at least. For what is life if it has no recogni- 
tion of that counsel which urges that you should 
" add to your faith virtue ; and to virtue knowledge ; 
and to knowledge temperance ; and to temperance 
patience ; and to patience godliness ; and to godli- 
ness brotherly kindness ; and to brotherly kindness 
charity " ? The ethical philosopher meets the Chris- 
tian teacher on the common ground of the necessity 
of these requirements, although he often fails to ap- 
preciate the method of grace which can make these 
requirements real. His method is apt to be one of self- 
restraint, or of self-discipline. He does not employ a 
divine influence which brings a holy, life-imparting 
energy into contact with evil, and which originates 
and develops holiness to take the place of sin. The 
remark is often made that the reformation of a drunk- 
ard can never be accomplished without the grace of 
God. Drunkenness produces such debasing effects 
upon the whole nature. Its tendencies are so brutal- 
izing. By it conscience is seared. Sensibility of every 
sort is destroyed. The outlook appears to be hope- 
less. Yet, as one who has experienced the drunk- 
ard's misery, has remarked, " Many who know that 
they have lost the control of themselves by too 
frequent indulgence, are anxious to conquer the 
habits they have contracted, have made resolutions to 
amend their ways, have been successful in battling the 



LEAVEN. 315 

evil in their own strength for a while, but have finally 
yielded again to temptation, and at each attempt 
losing more of their self-respect, they have advanced 
further on the road to self-indulgence, and sunk 
deeper into the mire. And yet, they exclaim to 
themselves, ' What would I not give could I relinquish 
this terrible habit of intemperance forever ? ! " There 
is no power of self-restraint. The will has become 
enfeebled. To cease from all intemperance and to 
stop there is to exorcise the demons and to leave the 
nature of the man empty. That will not do. Human 
nature can not exist as a vacuum. Its cravings must 
be met and satisfied. The grace of our Lord Jesus 
Christ is competent to supply the need. His presence 
is not only a sentinel to announce the approach of a 
sinful and dangerous appeal, but also a cheering and 
companionable friend to enlist the sympathies and to 
sustain the affections and to strengthen the will. 
Soldiers always behave well in camps and on battle- 
fields if they know that a beloved officer is observant. 
This is an accepted principle. The grace of God em- 
ploys it. " Christ in you the hope of glory," is the 
best temperance pledge. Let the reclaimed drunkard 
realize his dependence upon Christ. Let him appre- 
ciate his own weakness. Let him pray constantly for 
strength. Let him welcome the beneficent, cheering 
witness of the Spirit with his spirit that he is a child 
of God. 



3 i6 LEAVEN. 

But we are instructed to address every other vice 
with this same method. It is successful with one, and 
it has been successful with all. Drunkenness yields 
to it, and so does violence, and so does pride, and so 
does selfishness. It is destructive only that it may 
be constructive. It kills only to bring to life again. 
There is no one of us who has an evil habit which 
is beyond the recognition of the influence of Jesus 
Christ. That influence considers the foibles as well 
as the faults of character, and aims to secure the pas- 
sive graces as well as those that are active. Its ideal 
is the perfect man, " the measure of the stature of the 
fulness of Christ "; and it works toward that ideal as 
patiently as nature works toward the attainment of 
typical beauty. I need not tell you, for you are as 
wise in this as I can be, that if you sincerely accept 
the grace of God, if you freely surrender to its author- 
ity, you will begin a progress which, like the path of 
the just, will shine brighter and brighter away on to 
the perfect day. Before you is "the prize of the 
high calling of God in Christ Jesus." You will carry 
with you, this sacred influence, the pledge of your 
ultimate sanctification. You will find support in 
every hour of weakness, comfort in every hour of sor- 
row, joy in every hour of calm experience, and hope 
in the supreme hour when death is announced. If I 
could believe that ye all among whom I have gone 
preaching the kingdom of God, have received the in- 



LEAVEN. 3 iy 

fluence of Jesus Christ, the grace of God ; if I could 
feel confident that ye would never frustrate that 
grace ; if I could hope that ye, my friends, would per- 
mit it to manifest its strength and beauty in your 
hearts and lives, I would require no prophetic fore- 
sight, no vision of inspired seer to disclose the years 
opening before you and leading to the city of God. 
Your conflicts and your victories would be evident, 
your afflictions and your consolations would appear, 
your prosperity and your refinement would manifest 
themselves. Those years would be crowded with 
patient, self-denying services. They would exhibit 
your considerateness, your enlarging intellectual and 
moral capacity, your holy aspiration, your delight in 
God, your preparation for His presence, your de- 
parture to be with Christ, which is far better. I fear 
not the future, if it is a future filled with Christ. I 
am ready to trust any life to the years that lie before 
us, if the life is hid with Christ in God. 

3d. The Christian graces, in their present manifes- 
tations of strength and beauty, encourage the en- 
deavors which aim to secure the Redeemer's triumph. 
We must make the confession, for truth demands it, 
that we have never given the grace of God a fair op- 
portunity, either in our own lives or in the social life 
of the world. We seem to be afraid to trust God's 
grace. Numberless appliances have been invented, 
by well-meaning persons, to help the grace of God. 



3i8 LEAVEN. 

With our lack of faith they are perhaps essential ; but 
when the day of a strong faith comes to us we shall 
cast them all aside, as the stripling David did the 
armor of King Saul, that he might use his sling in de- 
pendence upon the God of Israel. And why should 
we not have faith ? The grace of God is not a sug- 
gestion of yesterday, with which we are asked to ex- 
periment. It has been in use for centuries, and its 
successes have been recorded by many historians. 
Individual and social life can exhibit evidences of the 
power of divine grace, which should silence every 
criticism. Here is Paul, a man of magnificent pro- 
portions, and he yielded himself entirely to the control 
of grace : and here is Augustine, whose brilliant career 
was ennobled and enlarged after Ambrose had taught 
him to appreciate the influence of Jesus : here is 
Anselm, who crossed the Alps, and made his way at 
last to the See of Canterbury, an Italian becoming 
thus the primate of Britain, and realizing at every 
step of his progress the sanctifying control of our 
blessed Lord : here is Bernard of Clairvaux, whose 
Christian manhood made the rude hut which he oc- 
cupied the centre of Christendom, whence, in the 
name of Christ, he rebuked kings and prelates, and 
where he preached a Gospel whose magnetism drew 
princes and courtiers to a holy life : here is John 
Knox, whose stern, heroic nature was worth more 
than an army to any cause, surrendering promptly 



LEAVEN. $ig 

and entirely to the demands of grace : here is Ruther- 
ford, whose persecutions witnessed to the reality of 
sustaining grace, so that he was able to call his gloomy 
prison " Christ's palace in Aberdeen ": here is Baxter, 
announcing through grace the " Saint's Rest ": and 
Jeremy Taylor, writing "The truth as it is in Jesus," 
concerning " Holy living " and " Holy dying ": here 
is Luther, stripping from the tree of life the fungus 
growths of ages of worldliness and superstition ; and 
here is Bunyan, sending forth his pilgrim to journey 
on to Heaven with the strength and direction of 
grace: here is Wesley, organizing a spiritual cam- 
paign, whose victories have planted the cross in almost 
every land : and here is Chalmers, solving the problem 
of pauperism, with the assistance of grace : here are 
the abodes of cannibalism, transformed by grace into 
Christian homes : and here are the amenities of life, 
possessed by nations once savage, to whom the grace 
of God has come. 

I might ask you to consider the influence of Jesus 
as it has affected child-life, and you would be com- 
pelled to visit the nurseries and the schools, in which 
the Gospel is now moulding the coming generation ; 
I might ask you to consider its influence upon 
woman's life, and you would quickly acknowledge 
that the Christian nations of -the world give to woman 
the only estimate at all approaching her natural 
rights ; I might ask you to consider its influence 



3 20 LEA VEN. 

upon slavery, and you could hardly fail to acknowl- 
edge that the Epistle to Philemon states the prin- 
ciple which has loosened the fetters of the slave 
until they have fallen from his limbs ; I might ask 
you to consider its influence upon criminals, and you 
would become interested in the good work which 
was inaugurated by John Howard and Elizabeth 
Fry ; I might ask you to consider its influence upon 
war, and you would surely take notice of the prev- 
alence of arbitration, as well as of the desire to miti- 
gate the severity of war; I might ask you to con- 
sider its influence upon toleration, and you would be 
obliged to account for the deliverances of the Berlin 
Conference respecting intercourse with the Congo 
territory. " The peculiarity of Christ's teachings in 
regard to political matters/' a thoughtful writer re- 
marks, " was that He left them entirely on one side, 
but threw in a principle into human society which 
was destined in after ages to overthrow or modify all 
existing institutions and governments." He was in 
no haste. Long periods of gradual improvement were 
evident to His prescience. The leaven hid in the 
measures of meal required time for its complete ex- 
pression. So we wait, and yet we wait with patient 
expectation. The present and the past are the earn- 
est of the future. Our Christian optimism is not 
credulity. We do not believe that 



LEAVEN. 321 

" Somehow good 
Will be the final goal of ill "; 

we do not expect to awake to the realization that we 
have suddenly reached Utopia ; we are not anticipat- 
ing the millennium to-morrow or the next day. Noth- 
ing of the sort. Grave evils confront us. The social 
questions which demand a solution will all be an- 
swered before " the new Heavens and the new earth 
wherein dwelleth righteousness " shall appear. We 
may agree as to this, even if we can not agree as to 
the best methods of solving the questions. For 
Christian civilization can never rest satisfied until the 
poor are considered, until the weak are protected, 
until opportunity is afforded. We shudder when 
we hear the explosion of dynamite, but what shall 
we do ? Shall we redouble our guards and immure 
ourselves in splendid palaces as the Russian Czar has ? 
Shall we refuse to go out, and to look upon our 
fellow-men, and to inquire how they are living, and 
what they need ? Christ says : " Go, and I will go 
with you." But this means contact, and contact 
means insult, and insult precedes violence, and vio- 
lence may end in death. Yet " it is enough for the 
disciple that he be as his Master, and the servant as 
his Lord." In His name He bids us approach our 
fellow-men. With His grace He commands us to 
rescue them. Into their lives this grace will enter 
to make itself felt as the power of God unto salvation. 
14* 



322 



LEA VEN. 



Why should we hesitate? Is the Church feeble in 
numbers, in wealth, in intelligence, in social influ- 
ence ? Far from being feeble, we fear that her great 
strength is a source of weakness, because strength 
begets self-confidence. In the United States alone, 
the Church enrolls more than ten million communi- 
cants in a population of fifty millions. And who 
does not know that the wealth of the Church, and the 
intelligence of the Church, and the social influence 
of the Church have never been equalled ? Has our 
Lord any message to His Church ? Does He speak 
to you, my friends, who are looking forward to years 
of service? When the Church was very small — 
some five hundred strong — He said, as He contem- 
plated the conquest of the world, " Preach the 
Gospel." That was all. "Preach the Gospel." 
Would He say so now? Has He, think you, lost 
confidence in the power of His graces? Would He 
devise some new measures? No! He desires the 
Christian graces, and nothing but the grace of God is 
competent to their production. Let us sympathize 
with Him ! Let us depend more than we do upon 
God's grace ! Let us use it more faithfully ! 

What, then, is the need of the present ? I answer, 
unhesitatingly, a firm confidence in the influence of 
Jesus Christ; a confidence that traces His influence 
to its source in the heart of God ; a confidence that 
believes in His ability and readiness to make Himself 



LEA VEN. 323 

felt in every life and in every community; a con- 
fidence that holds firmly to the Holy Spirit's intelli- 
gent, pervasive, invincible activity. Men need the 
Gospel. Society needs the Gospel. Not philosophy, 
not speculation, not any form of words, but the Gos- 
pel of the grace of God which once conquered the 
Roman Empire, and which has since given us the 
Protestant Reformation. Let us believe this with 
sincere and effective belief. 

Again I ask, what is the need of the present ? And 
I answer promptly, that all Christians should use the 
influence of Jesus Christ ; that they should use it in 
the formation of their own characters and in helpful 
work for others. For believe me, my friends, when 
I say, that there is nothing that you can do for a 
human being which will prove so helpful to him as 
to lead him to accept the grace of God. When the 
grace of God is universally accepted and as univer- 
sally manifested, there will be no communism, no 
nihilism, no dynamite, no drunkenness, no pauperism, 
no stealing, no lying, no murder, no cruelties, no 
wars. Then peace will be the hum of cheerful in- 
dustry, and love will be the bond of social union, 
and comfort will be known at every fireside, and 
prayer will be heard in all lands, and the Redeemer 
will come again to visit His people, and there will be 
a long season of happy, safe, holy prosperity. 

Once more I ask, what is the need of the present ? 



324 



LEA VEN. 



And I answer gladly, hope. The Gospel promises 
have been confirmed already. God will not forget 
His word. He has met it faithfully in many ways. 
We may hope, and thus await the triumph. 

Two historical incidents may serve to emphasize 
the truth which we have been considering. In the 
tenth century it was announced to the world that 
Vladimir, the Grand Duke of Russia, was proposing 
to change his religion. Instantly ambassadors ap- 
peared at court to represent the advantages of many 
different religions. The cautious monarch, however, 
decided to send his own ambassadors to visit the 
nations, and to consider the characteristics of the re- 
ligions in the homes of those who held to them. 
At Constantinople, and in the ancient church of St. 
Sophia, the splendid service of the Greek Liturgy 
captivated them, and they returned to declare that 
they had " felt as if in the presence of the Angels of 
Heaven." Vladimir accepted their report; and. he 
and his court were thereupon baptized in the waters 
of the Dneiper. Then using his autocratic authority, 
he commanded his subjects to be baptized, and they 
obeyed him ; he compelled his armies to accept Chris- 
tianity and the soldiers were enlisted under the ban- 
ner of the cross. Thus the Gospel, in a few years, 
secured a formal recognition, while, alas, its spiritual 
power, its liberty, its purity of thought and action 
were little known. Russia is still Cossack, although 



LEA VEN. 325 

nearly nine centuries have passed since the baptism 
of the Grand Duke. A formal recognition of the 
Gospel was not the hiding of the leaven in the 
measures of meal. 

Let us go back a few hundred years, and then let 
us stand upon the Irish coast and observe a little 
company of resolute men who are launching a rude 
vessel on the waters of Loch Foyle. They have no 
swords, no spears, no instruments of war, and yet 
they are soldiers. A few seeds, a net, and some food 
constitute their cargo, although we must not fail to 
mention the copy of parts of the Holy Scriptures 
which they have placed in a wallet of skin. They 
are all young men of education, and they all know 
the grace of God. Columba, an Irish nobleman, is 
their leader, and they have resolved to carry the 
Gospel to the heathen tribes beyond the sea. The 
wind is fair. Their spreading sail soon bears thern 
to an island, from which, as they can see their native 
land, which they have resolved to leave out of sight, 
they depart to settle at last among the hills of Iona. 
Here they began their work of preaching. The 
neighboring tribes — rude and idolatrous — were visit- 
ed, and to them the unsearchable riches of Christ 
were made known. Their busy pens multiplied 
copies of the sacred writings, which they placed in 
the hands of the people. Learning that Brude, a 
powerful king of the Picts, had refused to receive 



326 LEA VEN. 

them, Columba approached the closed gate of his 
fortress, singing, as he advanced, the 45th Psalm. 
The gate was opened. The missionary was admitted. 
His message was heard. The Gospel found a place 
in the hearts of the tribes, where its manifestations 
in character and life have given to the world the 
splendid history of the Church of Scotland. No 
formal recognition of Christianity has made that his- 
tory. It has been a tribute to the subduing, elevat- 
ing power of the grace of God. 

The contrast is instructive. May we learn the 
lesson, and prove our intelligence by our fidelity to 
the influence of Jesus Christ ! " For Christ," said 
the great apostle, " sent me not to baptize, but to 
preach the Gospel "; and the Master himself declared 
that " the kingdom of God cometh not with observa- 
tion," " for behold the kingdom of God is within 
you." 

" Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding 
abundantly above all that we ask or think, according 
to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory 
in the Church, by Christ Jesus, throughout all ages, 
world without end. Amen." 



XVII. 



"OUT OF SELF, INTO CHRIST, UP TO 
GLORY."— THE FUTURE WITH JESUS 
CHRIST. 

"If any man serve me, let him follow me ; and 
where I am, there shall also my servant be ; 
if any man serve me, him will my Father 
honor." — John xii. 26. 

To serve is to follow, and to follow is to enter into 
the joy of the Lord. Service requires an intimacy of 
fellowship, which is the vital union of Christ and the 
Christian ; and a divine leadership is a safe conduct 
from earth to heaven. No one can serve who is un- 
willing to deny himself and to take up his cross daily ; 
and no one can follow who hesitates to go with Christ 
even to death and the grave. " He that loveth his 
life shall lose it ; and he that hateth his life in this 
world shall keep it unto life eternal." God is not 
arbitrary. " Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he 
also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of 
the flesh reap corruption ; but he that soweth to the 
Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." " The 
inheritance of the saints in light" is the natural expres- 
sion of a love which brings hope to penitence. " Strait 

(327) 



328 THE FUTURE WITH JESUS CHRIST. 

is the gate and narrow is the way," and the pilgrim- 
age ends when the city is reached. The servant who 
follows the Master day by day is preparing to share 
with the Master the glory of a higher service. Holy 
character waits upon the discipline of service. " The 
recompense of the reward is bestowed upon those 
who are able to appreciate it. 

Thus the future life of the Christian is the perfect- 
ing of his present life with Christ. Death is a great 
event, but in reality it is not so great an event as 
conversion ; for conversion is the beginning of that 
spiritual life whose expansion is to continue forever. 
That life comes to the hour of death as the heir 
reaches the period of his majority, or as the scholar 
approaches the day of his graduation. New respon- 
sibilities announce themselves. Under new condi- 
tions grace discovers its excellence. Beyond the 
material and the visible, this mortal puts on immor- 
tality. There is no loss, except the welcome loss of 
sin ; no forgetfulness, except the forgetting of every 
unworthy and disturbing memory ; no inaction, no 
torpor. Life is still real and earnest. The intellect 
is alive, and eager in its pursuit of truth ; the heart 
is warm, and happy in its attachment to all that is 
pure ; and the will knows no conflict of choices, for 
every choice is subordinated to the love of God. The 
earthly has given place to the heavenly. Where Christ 
is, there also His servant is. 



THE FUTURE WITH JESUS CHRIST. 329 



When Frederick Denison Maurice — a man whose 
spirituality was intensely keen and appreciative — 
approached the hour of his departure, he quietly 
remarked to the friends who stood around his bed : 
" I am not going to Death, I am going into Life." 
Then, with a benediction upon his lips, he closed his 
eyes and ceased to breathe. Of such a departure he 
had himself said: "As men watch the last breath of 
a dear friend, they seize his language ; they feel that 
they have a right to it. They say, A moment ago 
he was mortal, and now he is free. It has been but 
a twinkling of an eye, and what a change has come ! 
Though the decaying, agonized frame is lying calm 
and at rest, he who spoke a few minutes before did 
not derive his powers of speech, any more than the 
celestial smile, which still remains on the clay from 
that clay." 

When he heard of this translation, the Dean of 
Wells, Dr. Plumptre, expressed himself most beauti- 
fully in these simple lines : 

" He, too, is there ! and can we dream 
Their joy is other now than when 
They dwelt among the sons of men, 
As walking in the eternal gleam ? 

" We know not, but if life be there 

The outcome and the crown of this ; 
What else can make their perfect bliss 
Than in the Master's work to share ? 



330 THE FUTURE WITH JESUS CHRIST 



" Resting, but not in slumbrous ease, 
Working, but not in wild unrest, 
Still ever blessing, ever blest, 
They see us as the Father sees." 

This conception of the future life rests upon the 
assurances of the divine Word and upon Christian 
consciousness. The divine Word reveals it, and 
Christian consciousness — another word of God — an- 
nounces, in many a sure prophecy, the bright, cheer- 
ful hopes which make it easy " to depart and to be 
with Christ." 

The word of the Lord Jesus Christ promises to 
the Christian a blessed immortality in Heaven. A 
moment's reflection would convince any one that 
Jesus Christ announced a life after death, and that 
He associated that life with the life of the present. 
From the first hour of His public ministry to the 
last, He was engaged in an endeavor to persuade 
men that death does not end all, and that a peaceful, 
happy existence awaits those who prepare for it by 
faith in Him. He was never betrayed into anything 
like sentimental expressions, nor did He ever attempt 
to gratify an idle curiosity. With firmness and em- 
phasis the truth was spoken, while His silence was 
always eloquent. 

The truth, as He presented it, is a declaration of 
the important fact that there is a distinct place into 
which the righteous enter when they die. He refers 



THE FUTURE WITH JESUS CHRIST. 331 



to this place when He says to the penitent thief, 
" To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise": when 
He speaks of Lazarus, who was carried by the angels 
into Abraham's bosom : when He announces the com- 
ing of many from the East and West, who shall sit 
down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the king- 
dom of Heaven : when He discourses upon the many 
mansions in His Father's house, and upon the prep- 
arations which He proposes to make to receive His 
disciples : when He pronounces His benedictions, and 
calls the righteous to inherit the kingdom prepared 
for them from the foundation of the world. These 
references may be regarded as figurative. Yet they 
are interpreted by the plainest statements respecting 
life. How frequently our Lord gives the promise of 
eternal life ! How fond He appears to be of dwelling 
upon the significance of life ! Life, as He regards it, 
is evidently spiritual perfection. Human nature is at 
its best when it has this life eternal. Such life is not 
known here, and yet we have the earnest of it even 
now. It is a life which requires a residence, and that 
residence is Heaven. " Father," you can hardly fail 
to recall the precious language of the intercessory 
prayer, " I will that they also whom Thou hast given 
me be with me where I am : that they may behold my 
glory which Thou hast given me : for Thou lovedst 
me before the foundation of the world." What can 
be made of such an entreaty if it has no reference to 



332 THE FUTURE WITH JESUS CHRIST. 

the condition of the disciples after death ? Our Lord 
was just ready to close His work. In a few days He 
would return to His throne. Can we understand 
Him if we refuse to recognize His desire for the com- 
panionship, close and intimate, of those whose love 
He has won ? "Where I am there ye may be also," 
is His promise. Does He mean what He says? If 
so, is not His meaning evident ? Has the Church been 
mistaken in accepting these pledges ? Shall we begin 
now to erase from the tablets which record the faith 
of the departed all these precious words of the 
Redeemer? Must we read anew that triumphant 
challenge to death and the grave which Martha of 
Bethany heard as Jesus approached her brother's 
sepulchre ? Can we reduce that splendid declaration 
of immortal blessedness which has sustained the faith 
of all the Christian centuries to a mere announcement 
of spiritual revival ? Lazarus was dead. He had 
been dead four days. The broken-hearted Martha 
greeted the arrival of Jesus with the half-complaining 
exclamation : " If Thou hadst been here my brother 
had not died/' Jesus replied instantly : " Thy bro- 
ther shall rise again." Then Martha answered : " I 
know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at 
the last day." Now what had Jesus to say ; what did 
He say? He was in the presence of a sorrowful 
woman. How did He meet her confidence? Jesus 
said unto her: "I am the resurrection and the life. 



THE FUTURE WITH JESUS CHRIST. 333 

He that believeth in me, though he were dead, 
yet shall he live, and whosoever liveth and believeth 
in me shall never die." Certainly He could not have 
wished to convey the impression that the believer will 
never come under the power of physical death ; for 
He himself felt that power and yielded to it. He 
must have looked on to the future life, which is 
entered through physical death as a gateway. In 
view of His own life and work He was able to promise 
deliverance and triumph to His disciples. 

We shall not readily relinquish our hold upon " the 
truth as it is in Jesus " respecting immortality. We 
need this truth. Ours is a world of sickness, of death, 
and of graves. " Friend after friend departs." We 
crave knowledge of the future. After death, what ? 
Up to the boundary line we advance with the gifted 
spirits whose presence has made life desirable, and 
then our farewells are spoken. A frail, decaying 
body is left to us, sightless, speechless, pulseless. 
And is that all ? Where is the gifted spirit ? Tell 
me not that we must be satisfied to remain in igno- 
rance. We can not be satisfied. Yonder man, whose 
friends are all around him, in health and vigor, may 
think that he is satisfied. But let death touch the 
cheek of that lovely daughter: let the grave open 
to receive the form of that idolized son : and then 
venture, if you dare, to talk about annihilation or 
ignorance. No ! No ! the pressure of a practical ex- 



334 THE FUTURE WITH JESUS CHRIST, 

perience is recognized in the wistful, anxious cry for 
knowledge. Is there another life? What are its 
conditions ? How is its blessedness secured ? 

To this cry the promises of the Lord Jesus Christ 
are a response. His presence is assuring. We know 
that He is faithful and true, and we also know that 
He came down from Heaven. Just as in our ordinary 
journeys to distant parts of the earth, we accept the 
testimony of credible witnesses ; just as we should not 
hesitate to sail forth from the secure harbors upon a 
trackless ocean in expectation of reaching another 
continent of which we have heard ; so in this supreme 
journey we accept the statements of the Son of Man 
concerning Heaven and the course thither. We be- 
lieve what He says. We believe that He speaks 
advisedly. He has told us earthly things, and His 
speech has been confirmed ; may we not believe when 
He tells us heavenly things ? 

The prophecies of a Christian life demand for 
their fulfilment a residence with Christ Jesus our 
Lord in Heaven. Every life presents its own proph- 
ecies. The living epistles, known and read of all 
men, are covered with predictions of future blessed- 
ness or misery. Not more evident are the prophecies 
of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Malachi. Judas Iscariot 
went to his own place when his wretched career of 
treachery had been cut short by suicide. There was 
but one place for which he had prepared himself. 



THE FUTURE WITH JESUS CHRIST. 335 

The hypocrisy of his attendance upon the Master 
could not conceal the cunning and duplicity of his 
wicked heart. He was a bad man from the begin- 
ning, and he grew worse instead of better as the years 
advanced. Without a radical change — a change 
which would have been indicated by his sincere pen- 
itence — he could not have made his way to Heaven. 
On the other hand, Stephen's life was an anticipation 
of the joy of Heaven. He was a heavenly evangelist, 
even when he contended with the learned men of the 
synagogues. " Looking steadfastly on him they saw 
his face as it had been the face of an angel." A holy 
constraint was advancing him toward the perfect life 
which Heaven knows. His spiritual vision was clari- 
fied. He seemed to be out of the body before death 
released him. " He being full of the Holy Ghost, 
looked up steadfastly into Heaven, and saw the glory 
of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, 
and said : 1 Behold, I see the heavens opened and the 
Son of Man standing on the right hand of God.' " 
His happy experience was not exceptional. It has 
been shared by many of our Lord's disciples. The 
prophecy of the saintly life has discovered its fulfil- 
ment, and the veil has been lifted with an assured 
confidence that Heaven is not far away. The Eng- 
lish Laureate, with a poet's truthful insight, has ap- 
preciated this prophetic attitude of holiness, and has 
sung of those 



336 THE FUTURE WITH JESUS CHRIST. 



To whom was given 
The joy that mixes man with Heaven ; 

" Who, rowing hard against the stream, 
Saw distant gates of Eden gleam, 
And did not dream it was a dream : 

" But heard by secret transport led, 
Ev'n in the charnels of the dead, 
The murmur of the fountain head. 

" Which did accomplish their desire, 
Bore and forbore, and did not tire, 
Like Stephen, an unquenched fire." 

Oh ! that we might be led to consider these proph- 
ecies ! They are surely most impressive. Heaven is 
not entered by accident. No happy chance will trans- 
port the sensualist from his cups and his revelry to 
the marriage supper of the Lamb ; no process of de- 
velopment will bring the infidel to rejoice in the 
worship of our divine Redeemer; no sentimental 
clemency will open the gates of pearls to welcome 
men who have lived and died without reference to 
the essential work of grace. "Ye must be born 
again." The new birth of the Holy Spirit establishes 
the character which has " its fruit unto holiness and 
the end everlasting life." 

For the Christian life is a reality. We may judge 
of its quality ; we may test its method ; we may dis- 
cover its foundation. The foundation is Jesus Christ, 
inasmuch as the Christian life rests upon His person 



THE FUTURE WITH JESUS CHRIST 337 

and work. He is beneath all Christian life. " Other 
foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is 
Jesus Christ." As in the erection of a house, the 
foundation is indicative of the strength, the dura- 
bility, and the general form of the structure, so is it 
in the Christian life. If a man proposes to build a 
shelter for cattle, he does not lay the substantial 
foundations that he uses when he prepares to build 
a home for his family. When he is providing a per- 
manent home, his foundations are massive. As his 
means allow, so he provides for the future. Jesus 
Christ, as a foundation, is secured freely. No one is 
so poor that he is unable to establish his life on this 
best foundation. He may depend upon the salva- 
tion, which his Lord has provided. He may commit 
himself unreservedly to this divine Protector. Here 
is his confidence for time and for eternity. You may 
destroy a structure by fire, by tempest, by violence, 
and yet the foundation will remain ; and from the 
foundation, the structure may rise again. But when 
the foundation is gone, all is gone. This is what 
Paul meant when he said that " the fire shall try 
every man's work of what sort it is "; and that there 
are some who " shall be saved, yet so as by fire." 
Careless building upon the true foundation is pos- 
sible. There may be a Christian beginning without 
a proper Christian progress. One may accept the 
Saviour, and then become very worldly. If so, the 
1 % 



338 THE FUTURE WITH JESUS CHRIST. 

life-work will prove a loss. The trial by fire will con- 
sume the gold, the silver, the precious stones, the 
wood, the hay, the stubble, and nothing will be left 
but the foundation. That means salvation ; but not 
the abundant entrance which should be secured into 
the Heavenly kingdom, not the carrying into Heaven 
of the treasures of a well-spent life. Occasionally 
we meet with this phase of experience, when we find, 
at death, that a neglected, abused Christian hope, a 
hope which was cherished, perhaps, in early life, re- 
vives and asserts itself. God does not disregard it, 
as its presence becomes evident ; but we know that 
it fails to meet His cordial approbation. 

For the foundation indicates the plan of the struc- 
ture. There are living stones in the quarry of the 
Divine Word, which may be built up into a spiritual 
house. These living stones are all accessible. The 
Divine Word is within our reach. We may, each 
Christian for himself, shape these living stones, and 
lay them, course by course, upon the foundation. 
What are we building? Why! a holy temple to the 
Lord, in which the melodious symphonies of sancti- 
fied praise shall never cease to be heard, in which the 
truths of salvation shall be proclaimed with the elo- 
quence of a devout activity, in which the presence of 
the Holy Spirit shall be manifest, as love and peace, 
mercy and faith, resignation and aspiration, are lumin- 
ous from the light within. God calls no man to erect 



THE FUTURE WITH JESUS CHRIST. 339 

a banqueting-hall as a place of revelry, nor an ex- 
change as a mart of commerce^ nor a dungeon in 
which he may seclude himself. The architecture of 
the earth responds to many demands of selfishness 
and pleasure and business. Not so with the archi- 
tecture of Heaven. There the demand is unique. 
The one, essential requirement is " holiness, without 
which no man shall see the Lord." Each life, in its 
personal building, must meet this requirement, and 
thus render glory to God. When I watch the patient 
workmen who here upon this sloping hill-side and in 
yonder valley express such a variety of thoughts in 
stone and timber, as they provide homes for the 
people, I wonder if they, and those for whom they 
labor, remember that there is "a house not made 
with hands, eternal in the Heavens," whose architect 
is God, whose foundation is Jesus Christ, whose plan 
and specifications are contained in the Bible, whose 
ultimate purpose is that it may be " a habitation of 
God through the Spirit." Carefully do they build 
these homes, which soon must be vacated. With no 
restraint of industry and sacrifice does love provide 
for the comfort of the precious household, which may 
not hope to be long united. It is well ! God bless 
these homes ! God honor those who bring to them 
the best of offerings ! But oh ! let us not forget that 
there is another house, which is not of this building. 
Oh ! let us not fail to build the holy temple, which is 
our house from Heaven ! 



340 THE FUTURE WITH JESUS CHRIST 

The reality of the Christian life is so evident that 
we require no extended argument in support of it. 
We know natural flowers when we see them ; and 
even if we are sometimes deceived, for a moment, by 
the skilful imitations of art, we soon discover our 
mistake. The Queen of Sheba, it is said, tested the 
wisdom of Solomon by placing before him real and 
artificial flowers, and asking him to decide ; and the 
ever-ready king determined the matter by inviting to 
his aid a swarm of bees. Children recognize the dis- 
tinction between a Christian and a non-Christian life ; 
so do the poor, so do all plain people. There is no 
denial until the modern philosopher is reached, 
whose refined, speculative, critical spirit is almost 
equivalent to a paralysis of all sensibility. Differing 
in its supreme choice, differing in its method, differ- 
ing in its results, the Christian life is an exotic. The 
seed of its planting, the cutting from which it springs, 
has been brought from another clime. Heathenism 
has not produced this life, nor has Mohammedanism. 
The virtues and graces of false religion are like the 
rare flowers of the century plant, not like the roses 
of Sharon, or the lilies of the valley. Occasionally 
you meet them. The starred names of that history 
are very few. But it is not so with Christian life. 
This appears whenever faith and love are manifest ; 
and as faith and love are the universal offer of the 
Gospel, they appear constantly. The Spanish Jesuits 



THE FUTURE WITH JESUS CHRIST. 341 

found upon the Isthmus of Panama a singularly 
beautiful orchid, whose flower was a delicate white 
cup, in which rested the form of a dove with out- 
stretched wings. They instantly named it " Espiritu 
Santo," — " The Holy Ghost." To their vivid imagina- 
tion it seemed like a plant from the Garden of the 
Lord. The true flower of the Holy Ghost is a Chris- 
tian life — pure, spotless, refined, spiritual, devout— 
upon the branch which has sprung from the Rod 
out of the Stem of Jesse, and whose aspiration, like 
the spreading wings of a dove, is the earnest of a 
desire to fly away and be at rest. Is there no cor- 
respondence to this desire ? Is there no rest which 
may meet these divinely inspired aspirations? Is 
man at his best — and man is surely at his best when 
his thought and affections go out after holiness and 
Heaven — a delusion and a cheat? The eye was 
made to see, and there is beauty all around ; the ear 
was made to hear, and sounds innumerable bring it 
satisfaction ; the intellect was made for truth, and 
truth is present to reward its thought ; the heart was 
made for love, and friends respond to love's magnetic 
charms. Can it be true then that " a soul that's born 
of God " is mocked and doomed to bitter disappoint- 
ment in its expectations of Heaven? Are these 
expectations vain and worthless ? They meet the 
promise of our divine Lord. Was He, too, mistaken ? 
" If in this life only we have hope in Christ/' a splen- 



342 THE FUTURE WITH JESUS CHRIST 

did thinker once remarked, " we are of all men most 
miserable." He could not endure the possibility. 
His vigorous mind revolted against its gloom and 
despair. For he quickly met the demands of faith 
in the bold announcement : " Now is Christ risen 
from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them 
that slept." There can be no such disappointment. 
" Let God be true." When He has, by the Holy 
Spirit, aroused us from the deadly lethargy of sin, 
when He has quickened and inspired us, when He 
has spoken to us, by His Son, with reference to the 
future life, and has led us to prepare for its high and 
noble satisfactions, can it be that He will plunge us 
at death into vacuity ? 

Then another prophecy — and perhaps a more sure 
word of prophecy — appears in the incomplete prog- 
ress which an earthly life secures — " Not as though 
I had already attained, either were already perfect." 
We hardly begin to live the Christian life when we die. 
Our best endeavors are, after all, experiments. Some 
one has said * that " a tree rises from its seed, it in- 
creases for many years, it is beautiful to the eye, it 
yields fruit, it furnishes shade. If it were to remain 
here forever it could do nothing worthier or better. 
It has attained perfection as a tree. So an animal 
reaches in a short time the limit of its powers 



* Pres. Hopkins, " Moral Science/' p. 288. 



THE FUTURE WITH JESUS CHRIST 343 

It is perfect as an animal But no one can say 

that man reaches here his perfection. The philos- 
opher who has traversed the circuit of human knowl- 
edge and has pitched his tent upon its outposts, 
not only does not approach the limits of knowledge, 
but what is important, he does not find his powers 
burdened or embarrassed by the knowledge already 
acquired. On the contrary, every advance which he 
makes gives, and from the nature of the powers must 
give, new light and strength to make further ad- 
vances ; and when old age comes he only feels him- 
self more ' like a child gathering pebbles on the shore 
of the great ocean of truth.' " " So also, and more 
so, is it with the good man making progress in good- 
ness. His path is like the shining light. Shall it 
shine more and more unto the perfect day, or shall 
it go out in darkness ? Or shall he be left the only 
fragmentary being, as if God had completed every- 
thing else, and had failed in His grandest undertak- 
ing, as if He had, indeed, made him not the glory, 
but the jest and riddle of the world ? " What Chris- 
tian life can fail to appreciate the force of this argu- 
ment ? Who is not continually " reaching forth unto 
those things which are before " ? We know that we 
can do better, that we can be better, and we firmly 
believe that the better opportunity lies beyond. 

And is it not true that the Christian life witnesses 
to the reality of a growing desire to be very near to 



344 THE FUTURE WITH JESUS CHRIST. 

Christ ? Is not this the chief desire of every devoted 
Christian ? The grand apostle, to whom we so often 
turn for instruction, said once : " For to me to live is 
Christ, and to die is gain.'* Then he added : " I am 
in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart and 
to be with Christ, which is far better." He rejoiced 
in Christ. His soul was thrilled at every remembrance 
of his Saviour's love. He was eager to know Christ 
better, and to love Him more. Consequently he had 
to check the ardor which looked eagerly toward the 
departure, whose open vision would be the face of 
Christ. We may share his expectation. There can 
be no Heaven to the Christian without Christ. This 
earth becomes heavenly when Christ becomes real. 
The holy hours, which emphasize the nearness of His 
sacred presence, are simply anticipations of that end- 
less day when we shall be like Him and see Him as 
He is. 

His presence alone is the pledge of Heaven's bless- 
edness — " I go to prepare a place for you." That is 
enough. We may rest upon that promise. Do you 
ask me what Heaven's life is ? I can only reply that 
it is life with Christ. Do you press me with your 
questions and inquire respecting locality and occupa- 
tion ? I can only answer that it is where Christ is, 
and that we shall rejoice in the occupation that He 
appoints. We are to be welcomed, not as guests, to 
stay a few days and then to depart, but as brethren to 



THE FUTURE WITH JESUS CHRIST. 345 

abide forever in our Father's house on high. We 
need have no fears. The Christian life, here and 
now, is awake to every bright and noble impulse, to 
every cheerful recognition, to every holy service. Do 
you suppose, can any one suppose, that the Christian 
life in its perfection will be dull and stupid and in- 
ane, without sympathy, without recognition, with- 
out activity, with a ceaseless round of psalms and 
hymns ? There is no warrant for the supposition. 
Christ-likeness forbids it. The perfection of living 
is wrapped securely in the announcement that "we 
shall be like Him." Oh, the rapture of that experi- 
ence ! Oh, the inspiration of that sublime hope ! Tell 
us, ye angels, who are sent forth as ministering 
spirits, that we shall be like Christ ! Tell us, ye 
saints, who are already safe before the throne, that 
we shall be like Christ ! Turn the shining light of 
that splendid realization upon our defilement and 
sin. Consume our wickedness. Burn away the dross 
of worldliness. Refine every enduring quality. Set 
us free from all the corruption of this present life. 
Grant, O God, that the Holy Spirit may never leave 
nor forsake us, but preserving us blameless may 
present us faultless before the presence of Thy glory 
with exceeding joy ! The consummation of Chris- 
tian life is realized ; the many prophecies are at last 
fulfilled ; grace has ripened into glory. God be 
praised ! a sinner has become a saint ! 



346 THE FUTURE WITH JESUS CHRIST. 

" O, then what raptured greetings 

On Canaan's happy shore, 
What knitting severed friendships up, 

Where partings are no more ! 
Then eyes with joy shall sparkle, 

That brimmed with tears of late, 
Orphans no longer fatherless, 

Nor widows desolate." 

Yes, brethren and friends, Jesus Christ is central to 
all hope of the future. Every speculation must yield 
to the confident assurances of His Word and work. 
When we recognize Him as Redeemer and Lord, we 
have a reasonable hope of immortality. How per- 
suasive, therefore, is His appeal ! How momentous 
are the consequences of faith ! I am permitted to 
offer you all eternal life in Him. Your days on earth 
are numbered. In a brief time you will have passed 
away to be known here no more forever. Life can 
not be long, even if it reaches the utmost limit. We 
must pass from these familiar scenes and avocations. 
Shall we go with hope ? We may. The opportunity 
is ours. God grant that no one of us may reject it 
and thus lose eternal life. 

And if we inquire concerning the best preparation 
for the eternal life in Heaven, we shall be urged to 
keep near to Jesus Christ. He is the Master and we 
are the servants. In His service we shall find the 
needed discipline. When we are ready for the heav- 
enly occupations, He will promote us ; when we can 



THE FUTURE WITH JESUS CHRIST. 34; 

serve Him better there than here, His call will be heard. 
Let us then be faithful — faithful in our loyalty, faith- 
ful in our daily walk and conversation, faithful in 
every least service, and He will give the crown of 
life. 

With increasing feebleness of body, but with no 
abatement of spiritual intelligence, Anselm, the Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury, awaited the summons of his 
Lord. For many months he was carried in a litter 
as he went to meet his appointments, and thus he 
was admonished that the end was near. On Palm 
Sunday, in the year 1109, he was advised that he 
would probably celebrate Easter in Heaven and not 
on earth. " It seems so," he answered, " and I shall 
gladly obey His summons ; yet I should also feel 
grateful if He would vouchsafe me a longer time with 
you, and permit me to solve a question in which I 
feel a lively interest on the origin of souls." " On 
the Tuesday evening his words became unintelligi- 
ble." Before daybreak, at the time of the cathedral 
service, one of his attendants read to him from God's 
Word the Scripture : " Ye are they which have con- 
tinued with me in my temptations, and I appoint unto 
you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me, 
that ye may eat and drink with me in my kingdom." 
As he heard these sweet assurances, Anselm bowed 
his head upon his breast, and his breathing became 
labored. The brethren were called. " They lifted him 



348 THE FUTURE WITH JESUS CHRIST. 

from his couch, laid him on the floor on sackcloth and 
ashes, and knelt around him in silent prayer. As the 
day dawned on the 2 1st of April, he fell asleep in 
Jesus." 

" So fades a summer cloud away ; 

So sinks the gale when storms are o'er ; 
So gently shuts the eye of day ; 
So dies a wave along the shore." 



i 




.c 




